Environmentalists urged President Aquino to lay out better mining policies as the ones being implemented by the government are further hurting the country’s natural resources instead of preserving them.
At the same time, the Kalikasan Peoples Network for the Environment (KPNE) called on Aquino to make accountable those who allowed the unabated illegal logging and mining activities in the country led by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje.
According to KPNE president Clemente Bautista Jr., said Aquino  up to now has not dealt Paje who is being blamed by many for alleged not doing anything about the reported anomalies at the DENR.
Calls for Paje to resign from his post snowballed recently  as various groups believed Paje is in cahoots with syndicates involved in illegal logging and mining.
Bautista said the President appears clueless as to whom the axe should fall over the worsening environment woes  because Paje is still at the helm of DENR.
“Instead of getting rid of a non-performing official, President Aquino is letting small employees at the DENR to pay the price,” Bautista said.
A number of DENR employees in Mindanao were dismissed from service after millions worth  of illegal logs were seized by authorities.
Since Aquino  can’t “punish” the real culprits behind the DENR anomalies, Bautista said the president should at least come up with better environment  policies.
“Even if the Aquino administration issued two major executive orders (EOs) on logging and mining, these have failed to stop deforestation and the plunder of our limited but rich mineral wealth. EO 23, issued in 2011, imposed a log ban but exempted a lot of deforestation drivers, such as plantations and mining areas, from this. EO 79, issued earlier this July, only strengthened the Mining Act of 1995 and the liberalization of the Philippine mining industry in exchange for a marginally higher government share,” Bautista said.
Meanwhile, other critics of Paje said the recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) of Aquino should be enough to make Paje quit his job.
In his SONA, Aquino commended Butuan City Mayor Jun Amante for his political will to stop illegal logging in the locality while  Paje’s name was never mentioned by the president in his   more than one and a half hour report  to the people.

“It only shows that the DENR secretary accomplished nothing. He should be ashamed because a mayor did the job for him,” a critic said.