SHE was born to a family of privilege and wealth, had a sheltered life in Forbes Park, and cherished her family’s love and affection.
She did not have a glass ceiling to crack; with her pedigree, she already could assume leadership in any of the family’s various businesses.
But she took the road less traveled. At 18, she left home with just two to three sets of clothes, and took a vow of celibacy.
Even in her college years in Boston, Massachusetts, she felt drawn to meditation, which led her to ashrams. Eventually, she became a full-fledged Ananda Marga yoga missionary, teaching yoga-run, pre-primary schools, and homes for the underprivileged children in Portugal, India and Africa.
In her six years in Kenya, she lived how the poor lived. She stood in line for water, and learned to make much of one pail of water, including bathing. “When one doesn’t have much, one treasures every little bit…and not to be wasteful,” she said.
For the children in the homes and for herself, she constantly looked for money to survive, this Regina Lopez, scion of the old rich Lopez family, and ex-secretary of the DENR.
A long-time adherent to the missionary slogan “Service to humanity is service to God,” it was no surprise that she willingly accepted President Rodrigo Duterte’s offer to be DENR post.
Having lived with the poor, she learned how not to be wasteful, to value empty containers because they could be useful someday, and to appreciate the character-strengthening value of hardship.
So it was neither a surprise that she would focus on protecting and conserving the country’s environment and natural resources. Her moves--launching an industry-wide mining audit, canceling 75 mining contracts, suspending five metal mines, shutting down 23 mines, and issuing rules banning future open-pit mining operations--pained the mine owners’ delicate necks and hungry pockets.
When one is not a team player, expect stiff opposition and submarine moves from the gang. After all, joint foreign business chambers estimated the value of the Philippines’ untapped mineral resources at $1.3 trillion. Imagine all the salivating for all the profits they could get, sans Gina Lopez.
Needs can be met; greed, never. So they called in past political favors, and using their ties that bind, put forth the “tulay” to the Commission on Appointments (CA) which thumbed down Lopez a third and final time.
President Duterte could only say he was “sad” that Lopez did not get confirmed, that “hindi ko kontrolado ang lahat,” and that “lobby money talks.”
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV doubts Duterte’s sincerity in supporting Lopez. If Duterte really wanted Lopez to stay, his presidential clout could have had her confirmed. I agree with Trillanes.
Didn’t he override PNP Chief Ronaldo de la Rosa’s decision to replace PNP Supt. Marvin Marcos for the murder of the late Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.? And didn’t he even have Marcos reinstated instead?
Now, the mine owners have a replacement in mind. Tuloy ang ligaya!