Betraying Nature, Betraying People: Why Yulo-Loyzaga Must Be Sacked

Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — May 23, 2025

IN Pola, Oriental Mindoro, 64-year-old fisherman Mang Carding sifts through oil-stained nets, his livelihood gutted by the 2023 MT Princess Empress spill. “The DENR promised help,” he says, voice heavy with despair, “but we were abandoned.” This is the bitter legacy of Secretary Maria Antonia “Toni” Yulo-Loyzaga’s reign at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources—a tenure marked by catastrophic inaction, elite favoritism, and a callous disregard for the Filipinos who bear the cost. With a pitiful 46% approval rating in early 2024, the lowest in the Cabinet, her failures scream for accountability. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. must accept her resignation and install a leader who fights for people, not just podiums.

Catastrophe Ignored: The Mindoro Oil Spill Fiasco

When 800,000 liters of oil blackened Mindoro’s waters in February 2023, Yulo-Loyzaga was a ghost. Local leaders like Governor Humerlito Dolor pleaded for direction as fisherfolk watched their futures dissolve in toxic sludge. Senate hearings exposed a shameful void: no national point person, towns “wailing and begging” for aid. The DENR’s belated dispersant sprays came too late for 21,000 families and 5,000 hectares of ruined marine ecosystems. Where was Yulo-Loyzaga when communities drowned in chaos? Her absence was a betrayal louder than any press release.

**Betraying Nature, Betraying People: Why Yulo-Loyzaga Must Be Sacked**

Tainted by Ties: The Yulo King Ranch Scandal

Yulo-Loyzaga’s integrity is shadowed by her family’s 40,000-hectare Yulo King Ranch in Palawan and Busuanga, a relic of Marcos-era land grabs seized by the PCGG in the 1980s. Farmers cry foul, accusing the Yulo clan of displacing them, while Senator Raffy Tulfo’s 2023 resolution demanded answers. Her dismissal of these as “false allegations” dodges the core question: Can a secretary linked to contested lands fairly guard public resources? The farmers of Palawan, still fighting for justice, deserve more than her evasive denials.

Stabbing Conservation in the Back: The Masungi Betrayal

The 2025 revocation of the Masungi Georeserve Foundation’s agreement is a knife in the heart of grassroots conservation. For years, Masungi’s rangers risked their lives to protect Rizal’s Upper Marikina Watershed, reforesting 2,700 hectares against illegal loggers. Yet Yulo-Loyzaga’s DENR declared the deal “void” on legal pretexts, ordering rangers out in 15 days. Environmentalists, from the Wild Bird Club to local advocates, warn this invites land grabbers. Why gut a conservation success story while preaching sustainability at UN summits? This move exposes her as an enemy of those defending nature.

Elite Agendas Over People’s Pain

Yulo-Loyzaga’s fixation on geospatial databases and climate buzzwords masks a grim reality: she’s sidelined the urgent needs of Filipinos. While she racked up P1.1 billion in 2023 travel costs jetting to UN conferences, illegal mining ravaged Sibuyan Island, and resorts defiled Bohol’s Chocolate Hills—a UNESCO Geopark—under her watch. Her after-the-fact closures in Bohol dodge the real issue: where was the oversight? Why champion global stages when Aeta communities face mining displacement and 21,000 fisherfolk still reel from the oil spill? Her priorities serve the elite, not the people.

Time to Answer: A Demand for Justice

The DENR isn’t a lecture hall; it’s a lifeline for millions relying on clean water, fertile land, and safe coasts. Yulo-Loyzaga’s 46% approval rating reflects a nation fed up with her detached technocracy. President Marcos Jr. must seize this moment to oust her and appoint a leader who merges science with soul—someone who stands with Mang Carding in Pola, Palawan’s farmers, and Masungi’s rangers. The environment is the pulse of the Philippines. It’s time for a steward who feels its beat.