Indigenous Peoples, rights advocates, envi defenders launch "NO to Pax Silica"

[TAGALOG] Mga Katutubo, tagapagtaguyod ng karapatan, tagapagtanggol ng kalikasan inilunsad ang "NO to Pax Silica"

The Indigenous Peoples, human rights advocates, church leaders, and defenders of land and the environment launch the Network Opposed (NO) to Pax Silica, August 31, 2026. This coalition represents a broad alliance of communities and organizations who see the Pax Silica initiative as a direct threat to ancestral lands, ecological balance, and the fundamental rights of the Indigenous Peoples and sovereign rights of the Filipino People.

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The Panaghiusa Philippine Network to Uphold Indigenous Peoples Rights (Panaghiusa) expresses its solidarity with the campaign, emphasizing that the struggle is not only about resisting one project but about asserting the collective rights of the Indigenous Peoples to self-determination, land, and culture.

Amid the government's aggressive push for the Pax Silica and Executive Order 122, a directive issued by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that establishes a national framework for the plunder of land for critical minerals, the people continue to oppose the Pax Silica Initiative.

While EO 122 speaks of “responsible development” and “national interest,” Panaghiua raises alarm. The order accelerates extractive projects without sufficient safeguards, undermines the Indigenous Peoples' right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and risks displacing communities from their ancestral lands in favor of corporate mining interests. The language of “national priority” embedded in EO 122 could be used to override people's opposition to destructive projects and weaken environmental protections, making it harder for communities to defend their territories.

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The opposition to Pax Silica is rooted in lived experience. The Indigenous Peoples have long borne the brunt of mining operations in the Philippines, from deforestation and water contamination to militarization and forced displacement. Panaghiusa emphasizes that EO 122, by fast-tracking mineral development, risks repeating these patterns on an even larger scale. The Pax Silica initiative, in particular, is seen as emblematic of this danger, as it targets ancestral lands, threatening lives, livelihoods, cultural heritage, and biodiversity.

Panaghiusa reminds that the Constitution itself recognizes the rights of the Indigenous Peoples to their ancestral domains, and international frameworks such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirm their right to FPIC and self-determination. To ignore these rights in the name of industrial growth is, in their words, a violation of both domestic and international law.

The launch of NO to Pax Silica therefore represents a collective assertion of resistance. It is a declaration that the Indigenous Peoples and their allies will not remain silent while policies like EO 122 threaten to erode hard-won rights. Panaghiusa urges church groups, civil society, and international organizations to scrutinize the Philippine government’s mining agenda and hold it accountable to human rights standards. #