Gina Lopez on Medialdea: 'I'm not happy with him at all'

Environment Secretary Gina Lopez on Saturday lashed out at Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea anew for supposedly opposing her memorandum order directing mining companies to set aside a P2-million rehabilitation trust fund and allowing the miners to remove their stockpiles.

"I'm not happy with him at all," Lopez told reporters when asked about her claim that Medialdea "countered" her order during the Earth Day celebration at the La Mesa Eco Park in Quezon City.

According to a Reuters report, the Environment chief issued a January 30 memorandum ordering suspended mining firms to place P2 million into a trust fund for every hectare of land disturbed before the stockpiles could be removed.

"Each mining, we have millions of tons of stockpiles and stockpile is a danger to the environment because if you dont remove it patay tayong lahat. There's $12 for every ton... if you take Zambales, they have 2.6 million tons... that comes over a billion pesos," Lopez said.

"Why dont just agree if you are a decent, loving human being. Is it right that farmlands suffer? I just wanna make sure that they set aside the fund, if anything happens the farmlands are safe. That is the spirit of the Duterte administration," she added.

Lopez acused Medialdea of "going away with the spirit of the Duterte government."

"Now Sec. Medialdea has given... counteracted my directions to every mining company that I gave my directions to. Now what's that all about it. He counteracted it. Each and every one of it. When they are removing the stockpile," she said.

"I truly feel that [what] Sec. Medialdea has done, he has stopped me from setting aside money for the farmers, is going against the spirit of the Duterte admin... I don't wanna fight with anyone but what he's doing... it's wrong, it's not good," she added.

Medialdea had clarified that the "stay order" issued by the Office of the President is not a final order but a mere provisional measure.

“OP has not taken any legal position regarding the validity of the DENR requirement for mining companies to remit P2 million per hectare to a trust fund. This is the very issue on appeal to the OP,” he added.

Lopez said the Cabinet works well when all the members are on the "same page" with the President.

"I feel we have a great president. You work as a team. He is very matapang  and he works for the poor. He loves the fishermen," she said. —John Ted Cordero/ALG, GMA News