AN OPPOSITION lawmaker on Thursday criticized the plan of the government to restore the open-pit mining in the country, six months after it was banned by rejected former Environment Secretary Regina Paz "Gina" Lopez.
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu announced Tuesday that the ban on the open-pit mining will be lifted before the year ends after the interagency Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) voted to reverse the order of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The MICC's decision was lauded by mining companies but it was hit by environmentalists, including Lopez herself, who said that she will do whatever it takes to keep the ban she had imposed.
Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate said Cimatu seemed to be working hard to reverse all pro-environment initiatives implemented by Lopez.
"It seems that the secretary is hard at work in reversing the progressive stances of the agency under Gina Lopez," Zarate said.
"A few months into his unencumbered confirmation to his post, Secretary Cimatu has killed off one of the best moves of the department in history, to ban open-pit mining," he added.
Zarate, believing that open-pit mining causes massive destruction in the environment, said that it is prudent that the government probe first the mining pits before ordering the lifting of the ban.
"It is only prudent, at the very least, that the government suspends open-pit mining operations pending an investigation," the lawmaker said.
The ban was issued by Lopez in April, before she left the administration after the Commission on Appointments rejected her ad interim appointment.
Aside from banning the open-pit mining, Lopez during her stint has also ordered a mining ban in watershed areas. (SunStar Philippines)