Desire for Destruction

Article by Kristan Gile – Beyond the Norms

“You cannot kill the environment because if you kill the environment, you kill everything… And whose duty is it to protect our people? It’s the government. And when you make decisions based on business interests, you have shirked your responsibility. You have lost the moral ascendancy to rule the government because to you, business and money is more important than the welfare of our people.” — Gina Lopez

One of my favorite speeches was delivered by Gina Lopez in 2017 after she was rejected by the Duterte administration Commission on Appointments (CA) as the environment secretary. The speech is not merely environmental, but it is highly political. This esteemed woman, who came from a known business enterprise and one of the richest capitalists in the Philippines, the Lopezes, sounded like a socialist to me.

Lopez had always been on the side of the environment and the marginalized. When she initially ordered a mining ban that forced the closure of 22 mining companies in 2017, the Duterte administration, who wanted her as the popular pick for the environment pose, gave the appointments panel the nod to kick her out from the cabinet. During the 10-month stint of Lopez as environment secretary, she wanted to protect natural resources and the people who depend on them (e.g., the indigenous people) against destructive mining. Back then, former president Duterte, now detained in the International Criminal Court (ICC), was a powerful strongman as he was. He could have protected Lopez from the CA members who wanted no piece from her. But just like what she said: to them, “business and money is more important than the welfare of the people.” 

What is now the role of Lopez after almost a decade passed? She is now a little fragment in the Filipino memory only remembered when typhoons destroy homes, families, jobs, livelihood, schools, and lives. “Gina was right, after all.” A Filipino wrote a caption on Lopez’s resurfaced anti-mining speech on Facebook while trapped inside their cozy homes because work and classes are suspended due to a super typhoon. Too bad, we are 10 years late because in 2016, many of us were fooled by a fascist capitalist under the guise of populism and communism. Who is laughing now?

Last January 23, 2025, the Philippine National Police (PNP) arrested seven residents who had “obstructed” the mining operation in Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya. The mining venture is linked to Woogle Corporation. Residents, some coming from indigenous groups, have been manning a barricade to stop mining exploration by the corporation since September 2025, according to Altermidya. Viral photos circulated in social media include the police manhandling some of the residents in the human barricade. A video showed one of the community members arguing to the enforcers that “they are protecting their livelihood and family.” Environmental and science groups have been critical of the violent attacks of police officers, as reported in the Rappler community. 

Mining companies and their exploration of probable mineable resources was enshrined by the Republic Act No. 7942 or also known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. Since then, the government acted as if all lands in the Philippines are just “properties” that can be used to further economic boom through mining. They have forgotten the fact that indigenous people and communities have relied on their ancestral lands for sustenance and livelihood. The government, with an enacted law, legalize the displacement of these people, rob their source of living, and say to their face that the “law might be harsh but it is the law.” The law that should have been an institution to protect them is used to annihilate their existence. And we say that the law is “just” harsh. But in actuality, the law is not. It has been serving the wealthy, the mining corporations, the capitalists, and the top one percent conveniently. Its supposed “harshness” is only reserved to the poor, the indigenous people, and the marginalized who are silenced by the ruling majority. What an utter disregard and an antithesis to human rights.

I am heavily convinced during my freshman year, after I took an elective course on Philippine Indigenous Community, that there should be an outright ban on large enterprise, commercial, privatized, and destructive mining explorations. A library of articles and papers that the professor required as readings for that course have pushed me to believe that mining is anything but an economic advantage. What would you make do for some copper, silver, or gold when your human capital is estranged, jobless after their forceful removal in their lands. These mining corporations, who have a political hold over some officials, can lobby for their projects and legitimize their open-pit and large-scale explorations at the expense of environmental disaster. Would the copper, silver, and gold even suffice for the damages, the construction of destroyed homes, the lives lost, and the ongoing onslaught of climate change?

At first, it was still up to debate, since indigenous communities also conducted small-scale mining for subsistence. Nonetheless, these minerals are necessary for products like electronics, jewelry, and others. However, there is a difference between the approach of indigenous people and large corporations to mining. The former knows the environment to a spiritual level. They know how not to be abusive and, definitely, how to be modest. Their ancestors taught them to treat the environment, their ancestral lands, not just sheer “property” but a living resource that needs to be taken care of. For they understand that the land is not their possession but of the next generation. From Macli-ing Dulag’s speech, an indigenous people hero, “You ask if we own the land and mock us saying, “Where is your title?’ When we ask the meaning of your words, you answer with taunting arrogance, ‘Where are the documents to prove that you own the land?’ Titles? Documents? Proof of ownership? Such arrogance to say that you own the land, when you are owned by it! How can you own that which outlives you? Only the race owns the land because the race lives forever.”

Definitely, the capitalists and corporations do not think of the race as much as Dulag sees it. Because in their framework, the land is an asset. It is a business opportunity that they can use to enrich their own coffers. To buy plenty of luxurious mansions that they cannot even occupy all at the same time. Perhaps, to possess thousands of cars, worth of a king’s ransom, that they cannot even drive all at the same time. The spiritual connection is missing in the heart of a businessman. They see no life but destruction to lands cultivated by many generations of people. Yet, they will secure in their hands a small piece of paper and shove it to the community and tell them,”We are now the landowners.” How can you claim its ownership when your hands did not even graze its soil?

Mining and other destructive business pursuits are not only environmental issues but political and social. It has the lives of people and the sustainment of natural resources at stakes. In the aim for economic prosperity, the government and law have, in Lopez’s words “shirked their responsibility and moral ascendancy to rule” because they pledge their allegiance opposite to the interests of the people. And when we ignore all of these tell-tale signs and red flags, it will only become another little fragment of our history. When catastrophe and disaster comes, we will be buried in the abyss of regret.

It is only the human race that has this innate and insatiable desire for their own destruction. Other species have their own systems up against their demise. Their defense mechanisms are always aligned to the protection of their environment and natural habitat, because they have always identified themselves with nature. Most importantly, they do not operate in a capitalistic society that, with its all honor and glory, led the world to 85 seconds to midnight in the doomsday clock. The Science and Security board, last January 27, 2025, warned of a global disaster due to the “risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, and the potential threat of artificial intelligence.” We have all the blame left to ourselves.