My way or the environmental highway:Philippine President warns mining sector

The Philippine President has offered a warning call to mining companies: follow the environmental regulations or shut down, the nation can live on without you.

President Rodrigo Duterte told a briefing this week issued the rallying cry as well as jumping to the defence of Environmental and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez following the announcement of a nationwide audit.

“You try to castigate Gina Lopez for being strict, and yet you destroy the land, destroy the soil, and then you get rich” he said, referring to miners.

"We will survive as a nation without you, either you follow strictly government standards or you close down."

Mining experts have responded to the President’s bold statement, insisting that the mining sector is being somewhat unfairly targeted.

Dante Bravo, president of Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc, the Philippines' second-biggest nickel ore miner, said: "The industry is using less than 20,000 hectares out of the 30 million hectares comprising the total land area in the Philippines,”

“And we are contributing so much to the national economy and local development. So, I think we should be treated fairly," Bravo told Reuters.