WAS GINA LOPEZ SACRIFICED?

By Bayawanon

A weird happening came into fruition in the final confirmation hearing of Regina "Gina" Lopez to be the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary before the joint session of the Senate and the House in its Commission on Appointments, since the administration senators and congressmen who were expected to side and vote for her rejected her, and the opposition members of the Commission on Appointments who were expected to deny her voted for her confirmation.

What does it mean? Does it mean that she was dropped by the current national leadership in exchange of something? Is it not that the president has lobbied for her confirmation because of her excellent performance as an environment chief? Is it not that what the president wants, the president gets, so why was Gina Lopez not confirmed?

Was Gina Lopez not confirmed because there is a congressman-member of the Commission on Appointments who happens to be a brother of a mine owner? Was Gina Lopez not confirmed since there is a congressman-member of the powerful Commission on Appointments who happens to be a brother of an aspirant to the environment post as its top honcho? Was Secretary Lopez not confirmed because of the fact that she is a member of the Lopez family, the owner of the ABS-CBN network which is exposing the dreaded drug war of the current regime?

For all I know, Congressman Ronaldo Zamora's brother is a big time mining operator and Congressman Joseph Tolentino's brother, former MMDA Chairman Bambol Tolentino would like to be DENR Secretary too. Bear in mind that both Zamora and Tolentino were two of the majority members of the Commission on Appointments who blocked Secretary Lopez's confirmation. Secondly, Secretary Lopez is a member of the Lopez family who owns the ABS-CBN network, a bastion of democracy in the field of free press, which might have run over the ego of the present supreme national leader, thus the retaliation.

According to the good president, Gina Lopez was not confirmed due to the lobby money of mining firms. Paying the senators and congressmen by way of lobby money for Gina Lopez not to be confirmed as an environment czar is purely and simply a case of bribery, so why not the president file a case of bribery against his pet senators and congressmen and the mining people who bribed them?

The rejection by the CA of Gina Lopez's ad interim appointment as environment guru was so weird because Gina Lopez was actually the best thing that ever happened to the Duterte presidency for her no non-sense implementation of the environmental laws. Everyone aside from the mining firms was expecting Lopez to be confirmed as the environment department's highest official for her sterling performance in her department, but lo and behold, the exact opposite happened.

I hope that the president would let this happening be investigated and that the proper criminal and administrative cases be filed against the culprits for trying to fool around with the law if evidences would be produced against them, otherwise Gina Lopez would clearly be considered a sacrificial lamb by the current national leadership.