Look: Map of mining projects affecting the Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines

Across the Philippines, Indigenous Peoples’ ancestral lands are being carved open for large-scale mining. What corporations call “development” has meant displacement, environmental destruction, militarization, and the erosion of Indigenous communities’ rights to land, livelihood, and self-determination.

Since the enactment of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, large portions of the country have been opened to foreign and large-scale mining corporations. By 2023, nearly half of all mining projects in the Philippines (about 49%) were situated within ancestral domains, according to the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center. This trend is expected to intensify as the Marcos Jr. administration pushes to expand mining operations and position the Philippines as a major supplier of so-called “transition minerals” for the shift toward renewable energy. However, this expansion continues to threaten Indigenous lands, with around 26% of transition mineral mining areas overlapping with Indigenous territories, based on a 2024 report by Global Witness.

This aggressive expansion of the mining industry has resulted in deforestation, pollution of rivers and watersheds, land grabbing, and the destruction of ecosystems that Indigenous communities depend on for food, culture, and survival. At the same time, Indigenous leaders and environmental defenders who resist these projects often face harassment, criminalization, and militarization in their communities. Many are killed for the defense of ancestral lands and the right to self-determination.

Thus, Katribu reiterates the call to junk the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, and to pass the People’s Mining Bill for a more humane, pro-environment, and welfare-oriented mining industry. It is high time that mining projects serve the interests and development of communities across the Philippines, not just to serve the pockets of corporations and politicians.

The struggle for the defense of our rights and ancestral lands continues!