President Duterte’s appointment of former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Roy Cimatu as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Monday has put an end to speculations on who will replace environmental advocate Regina Paz L. Lopez.
Cimatu’s appointment was made just a few days after the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) rejected Lopez’s appointment.
This early, however, militant and environmental groups have expressed reservation over Cimatu’s appointment. Some quickly issued statements rejecting the President’s choice for the top DENR post.
For one, Cimatu has yet to lay down his plans as Duterte’s alter-ego in managing the country’s environment and natural resources, which remain under siege by illegal activities.
Challenges
Besides rampant illegal logging, mining and quarrying, the Philippines is faced with the challenge of implementing a national greening program to reforest over 7 million hectares of open, degraded and denuded forests; and stop deforestation and land conversion, dump-and-fill activities in coastal areas and lakes, illegal fishing and illegal wildlife trade.
The DENR is also mandated to prevent soil, water and air pollution, and implement relevant laws, including the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, Philippine Clean Water Act and the Philippine Clean Air Act.
Padlocking of DENR gates
The announcement of Cimatu’s new post came as environmental groups started a campaign calling for Lopez’s reappointment. CA rules, however, states that those rejected could no longer be reappointed.
Greenpeace Philippines, for one, padlocked the DENR gates in Quezon City to express indignation over Lopez’s rejection by the CA.
Environmental groups had a history of being adversarial to the environment agency for the longest time because of conflicting views in enforcing environmental laws.
Finally, they found an ally in Lopez, but it was cut short by the CA vote.
Miners optimistic
While environmental groups are dismayed over Cimatu’s appointment, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) is optimistic in Cimatu’s appointment, and vowed to work with the new DENR chief to promote responsible mining.
COMP made a historic position in the case of Lopez, who it said is killing the industry with her controversial orders to close or suspend 28 operating mines, cancel a total of 75 mineral-production sharing agreements and impose a ban on prospective open-pit mines.
In appointing Cimatu, Duterte was able to push through with an alleged earlier plan of appointing a former military official to the DENR before his surprising naming of Lopez.
While Lopez was popular among environmental groups, she became the only Cabinet secretary with more than 30 opposers in the CA, which decision, some sectors believe, was swayed by business interests, particularly mining.
No less than Duterte issued a controversial statement that “lobby money talks” in the CA’s rejection of Lopez’s appointment.
Cimatu was AFP chief of staff from May 18, 2002, to September 10, 2002. An Ilocano, he was a member of the Philippine Army. He later served as special envoy to the Middle East.
Lopez herself was cautious in commenting on Cimatu’s appointment. Interviewed over ABS-CBN News Channel, Lopez said she respects Duterte’s decision in appointing Cimatu. Having not much knowledge about the new DENR chief, Lopez said she would not judge his character, but only of his future actions. Lopez added she is eager to meet with Cimatu.
Critics
Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), said having come from the military, Cimatu does not sit well with the group.
“A military man in the DENR’s helm would be a mercenary for big mines, logging and corruption, and constitutes a betrayal of the people’s clamor for social justice and environmental protection,” Bautista said.
He said Cimatu has a “track record” of defending environmental plunderers. In 1994, then a colonel commanding the 603rd Brigade of the Philippine Army, Cimatu created the “Task Force Lumad” composed of personnel from the 641st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, the Davao del Norte Provincial Police Command and other government units to guard the logging tenement, Bautista said.
This was in response to the pangayaw, or tribal declaration of armed defense by Ata-Manobo leaders of the indigenous peoples organization Salugpungan against the massive logging operations of the Alsons company owned by the powerful Alcantara clan in Mindanao.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III also has worked as member of the board of directors of Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. but has since resigned when he joined the Duterte administration.
‘Pabaon’ scandal
Cimatu was also involved in the 2011 AFP pabaon corruption scandal, where retiring AFP chiefs were given hefty “send-off money” in the millions, with Cimatu allegedly received P80 million.
“It is unacceptable that a conduit of corruption will be reintroduced into an agency where billions of pesos worth of natural wealth are regularly transacted,” Bautista said. The last former AFP chief of staff to be named DENR secretary was the late Angelo T. Reyes, who came out with the controversial decision on reopening the controversial Rapu-Rapu large-scale mining project in Albay, Bautista said.
“It is a betrayal of the Filipino people’s clamor for social and environmental justice to appoint a fascist as DENR secretary when Duterte can have asserted for a pro-people, pro-environment activist figure in the DENR,” he said.
Groups worried
Greenpeace Philippines, likewise, expressed concern that Duterte has appointed someone “so quickly without first addressing the issues raised in [former] Secretary Lopez’s term and the circumstances surrounding her rejection.”
“We hope these won’t be swept under the rug. We are a bit worried why President Duterte is in a hurry to appoint a new secretary, and also disappointed by why he did not firmly stand by Gina Lopez, given that she seems to be one of the few who is earnest in implementing reforms toward positive change [in the DENR],” the group said in a statement e-mailed to the media.
“What will happen to the reforms started by Gina Lopez? These should be continued and expanded,” Greenpeace said.
It added that without prejudice to Cimatu, the group wanted to be clarified on the strengths and expertise of an appointee as DENR secretary.
“We need somebody with a clear track record on the environment. The problem with having a DENR secretary who has no clear track record on environmental issues is that the person likely won’t see the importance of a healthy ecosystem to a healthy economy,” it said.
Greenpeace said it wants someone who will champion the rights of people to a healthy and balanced ecology over the desire for profits and interests of destructive industries.
“In the interest of transparency, we need to know who the endorsers and backers of Roy Cimatu are, to establish the motives of people behind the decision to appoint him as the new DENR secretary,” Greenpeace said.
“But regardless of whoever takes over the DENR, an investigation should be launched to find out the extent of corruption within the DENR, as demonstrated during the CA hearing, wherein the alleged lobby money and influence of owners of mining companies prevailed over the people’s right to a healthy environment,” the group added.
The militant Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) echoed Kalikasan-PNE’s position against Cimatu’s appointment.
“Historically, military orientation is not to safeguard the environment and the people, but to protect the destructive mining operations of giant mining companies in the countryside,” it said.
“We are not blind to the fact that giant mining companies fund military forces to protect their billions of investments at the cost of the environment and democratic rights of the people affected by their mining operation,” the group said. Cimatu is an “obviously a 180-degree turn” of Lopez, it added.
“While the latter [Lopez] is a vanguard in protecting the environment, her successor is a [guardian] of big mining companies,” the group said.
Pamalakaya said appointing a former military official to the environmental affairs, giant mining firms would probably be on their business and destruction as usual.
“This is tantamount to treason not just to the environment, but to the eco-warriors and environment-loving people who genuinely fight for the welfare and protection of our environment for the benefit of the country,” the group’s statement said.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez, Facebook account of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol