Audit all the mining concessions. That's Gina Lopez's first order as new Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources. Given Gina's environment activism, mining firms cry that the audit is meant to close them all down. To be reviewed are their compliance with rules of the Mining Act of 1995. If they stick to extraction limits, tailings impounding, local employment and the like, then they have nothing to fear.

Or maybe they have. That's if Gina's first audit measure is their location. For, there's one basic rule for mine sites: they cannot be on mountainsides or inside forests. If they are, then they should be evicted.
Read more: Do miners comply with forestry laws?