Regina Lopez is applying the heat to miners who pollute water
Philippines environment secretary, Regina Lopez, last week cancelled one third of new mining contracts on environmental grounds. She also rejected calls to reverse her earlier decision to close 23 of the existing 41 mines in the Philippines on the grounds they are polluting drinking water. “You kill the watershed, you kill life” she told media last week. Despite the threat of legal action from international business, the environment secretary has the full backing of President Duterte. This is the second time he has publicly supported her actions since appointing her last June.
Philippine Environment Minister Continues Mining Crackdown
The Philippines’ environment minister stepped up a crackdown on mining on Tuesday, cancelling almost a third of the country’s contracts for undeveloped mines and rejecting any challenges to earlier orders to shut more than half of all operating pits.
Duterte at the Philippines-China Trade Investment Forum in Beijing
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte announced in Beijing this week a new strategic relationship with China and an end to the close military ties with the USA.
“America has lost now. There are three of us against the world, China, Philippines and Russia. It is the only way”, he told an international trade conference.
Meanwhile in the Philippines police have killed over 3,000 drug users and dealers in the 100 days since he came to power, publicly displaying the bodies with signs warning people not to deal in drugs. He criticises the USA for hypocricy in the war on drugs.
During the presidential election campaign Duterte promised to fill the Bay of Manila with the corpses of 100,000 criminals should he come to power.
Rodrigo Duterte interview: Death, drugs and diplomacy
“We have three million drug addicts, and it’s growing. So if we do not interdict this problem, the next generation will be having a serious problem. If you destroy our young children, I will kill you. That is a very correct statement. There is nothing wrong in trying to preserve the interest of the next generation.”
MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte’s shock “separation” from the United States has thrown Philippine foreign policy into confusion, with the Americans saying they are baffled and some of his top aides contradicting him.
America has lost now. I have realigned myself in your ideological flow, and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world, China, Philippines and Russia. It is the only way.”
The hitless of the Empire reads like a catalogue of illustrious world leaders: from Patrice Lumumba (Zaire), Mohammad Mosaddegh (Iran), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Sukarno (Indonesia), Juvénal Habyarimana (Rwanda), Salvador Allende (Chile) to Muammar Gaddafi (Libya), Al-Basheer (Sudan) and Fidel Castro (Cuba), to name just a few. Some were directly assassinated; others were ‘only’ toppled, while only a handful of ‘marked’ leaders actually managed to survive and to stay in power. There were several grave crimes committed by almost all of them include: defending the vital interests of their nations and people, refusing to allow the unbridled plunder of natural resources by multinational corporations, and standing against the principles of imperialism. Simple criticism of the Empire has also been often punishable by death.
