30 Years of Land Loss and Destruction is Enough! Repeal the 1995 Philippine Mining Act!

For 30 years, the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 (PMA) served as a tool for plunder, displacing Indigenous Peoples, destroying ecosystems, and enriching foreign corporations. Enacted under the guise of economic development, the PMA of 1995 has only served to legalize large-scale land theft and environmental destruction. Today, at least 305 mining permits encompass more than 650,000 hectares of land, with many overlapping with Indigenous territories.

This resulted in violent land grabs, environmental degradation, and the erasure of Indigenous cultures and ways of life. Indigenous communities from Palawan, Cordillera, and Mindanao continue to resist the pillaging of their ancestral domains, such as the Palaw’an against Citinickel’s Pulot Sofronio Mine, the Cordillerans against Apex Mining’s Itogon-Suyoc Resources and the Didipio Gold and Copper Mine, and the B’laan against the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project. The Mangyan people also face the negative impacts of several coal mining operations on their lands, such as the Agusan Petroleum Mining Corp. and Intex Resources. The ancestral lands of the IP have been pillaged, the communities brutalized by state-backed corporate greed.

The Philippine government and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) routinely manipulate Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes to railroad destructive mining projects. The FPIC is not merely a bureaucratic process—it is a fundamental right expressing Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination and authority over their ancestral lands. Fake consent is manufactured through deception, coercion, and bribery, stripping Indigenous communities of their rightful power to decide their future. Worse, the state and institutions that are supposed to protect Indigenous rights instead vilify community resistance. Those who stand against destructive mining are branded as “terrorists” and slapped with trumped-up charges of rebellion in an attempt to silence their struggle for land and justice.

The state also bombs and militarizes Indigenous communities to ensure that mining and energy projects proceed unchallenged. These bombings are not only blatant violations of Indigenous Peoples' rights but, more importantly, grave breaches of international humanitarian law, which prohibits indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations. Since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office, at least eleven (11) aerial bombings have been reported in Indigenous territories. Just last February 19, Barangay Tagumpay, Pola, Oriental Mindoro experienced aerial strafing by the 76th IBPA, followed by forced evacuation by the military in the following days. These blatant violations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL), disguised as “counter-insurgency” efforts, are preemptive of the entry of more destructive and extractive projects. Both the Marcos and Duterte regimes must be held accountable for these war crimes and the escalating human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples caused by military presence and operations. It is their administrations that openly welcome the entry of foreign investment and so-called “development” projects.

The 1995 Philippine Mining Act (PMA) has only brought death and destruction to Indigenous communities, allowing large-scale mining corporations to plunder ancestral lands, displace communities, and destroy ecosystems. It must be abolished and replaced with the People’s Mining Bill—an alternative that ensures mining contributes to genuine national industrialization, benefits the Filipino people, and safeguards our environment and communities. We demand justice for Indigenous Peoples who have been displaced, red-tagged, harassed, and killed in the name of profit-driven extraction!

Scrap the Philippine Mining Act of 1995!

Pass the People’s Mining Bill Now!

Stop the Plunder of Ancestral Lands!

Reference:

Beverly Longid

KATRIBU National Convener