“We hope there will be no more mining projects and that these mining companies will leave, because I know that mining is not the only way a community can achieve progress.”

By Trisha Nasam
Bulatlat.com

Growing up in the fertile rice fields of the province, Bugkalot-Ilongot resident Zesirie Enggo chose to till the same land that had sustained generations of their community.

On sunny days before, she recalled, a single hectare of their rice field could yield up to 100 sacks of palay.

Yet, as several mining corporations — FCF Minerals Corporation, Oceana Gold Philippines Inc. and now North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC) — take interest in the richness of their mountains and soil, their lives, livelihood and means of subsistence absorb the blow.

A hundred sacks quickly turned into 55 to 57 sacks, which she said would cost about P27,000 (US$437.27) every harvest, depending on the market price of rice. When the rains come, the harvest dwindles further, sometimes leaving their families with only enough rice for their own table and none to sell.

This decline in production, Enggo said, stemmed from the loss of irrigation as water from their rivers fell into a dry spell due to mining activities.

Without a steady water supply, once-productive rice fields became increasingly difficult to cultivate, shrinking harvests and threatening the farming livelihood of Indigenous communities in Nueva Vizcaya.

As it became harder to earn, Enggo said other residents chose to test their fate overseas or in lowland Manila.

“The development they [mining corporations] promised — roads, infrastructure, job opportunities — were not fulfilled,” Enggo said.

“Agriculture is our primary source of livelihood, and now we are once again being disrupted by a third mining corporation… We hope there will be no more mining projects and that these mining companies will leave, because I know that mining is not the only way a community can achieve progress,” she added.

Legal loopholes

According to data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), NLMRC’s Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) was approved in June 2025.

Under an MPSA, the government grants a private company the exclusive right to explore, develop, and commercially extract mineral resources within a contract area while ownership of the minerals remains with the State. The agreement is valid for 25 years and may be renewed for another 25 years.

However, Enggo told Bulatlat there had been no ‘genuine’ consultation with their community prior to the approval of their MPSA. 

“The first time we officially found out through an IPMR [Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative] that there was a new mining corporation in exploration in Kasibu was in October 2025. But the exploration permit had been issued even before consultations with the people were conducted,” she said.

According to Enggo, the company’s claim of consultation was done through a general assembly with local government officials, wherein residents were asked to sign an attendance sheet. 

“We thought the barangay captain had called a general assembly so the community could discuss and ask questions about the mining company. But what actually happened was that the attendance sheet residents signed during that assembly was later used as documentation for what they claimed was a consultation,” she shared.

Read: Mining firm files cyberlibel vs anti-mining residents’ lawyer

Lawyer Ryan Joset of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) raised questions about such a consultation process in development projects.

“The right to be consulted has been reduced to a right to presentation. They present the project to residents — the technicalities, the science, the benefits, the taxation, the economic benefits, and the ecological costs in one hour. Do you think [they will] be able to explain that effectively?” he said.

Joset emphasized the need for stronger legal safeguards in both policy and implementation, especially at the lowest level of bureaucracy. But he said these are undermined due to a “political capture,” where officials with investments or interests in mining companies use their influence to shape regulatory frameworks.

Earlh Palacio of the Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC) echoed his sentiments, saying, “Mining in the Philippines cannot be separated from the broader power structure in which control over natural resources is concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations with the ability to influence policy, investment, and the country’s development agenda.”

“This makes it easier for a selected few to retain control over the country’s natural resources, especially when some of its members wield direct influence over the formulation and approval of government policies,” she added.

Calling ‘mine’ on PH mines

The CEC reported during this year’s State of the Philippine Environment (SPE) forum on July 10 that at least nine mining corporations are linked to former and incumbent government officials.

Zamora

Among these is Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC), one of the largest nickel ore producers in the world, which sits at the helm of former congressman Ronaldo Zamora’s brother, chairman emeritus Manuel Zamora Jr.

The latter stepped down as chairman of the board in 2019, while the presidency was given to his son, Martin Antonio Zamora.

Zamora Jr.’s niece, Ysabel Zamora, now serves as the representative of the lone district of San Juan in the lower chamber. His nephew, Francis Zamora, is in his third and final term as the city mayor, after first winning the post in 2019.

According to NAC’s 2025 financial statement, the company earned gross revenue of P27.37 billion from the sale of ore and limestone alone. 

Data from the MGB show that Hinatuan Mining Corporation, Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corporation, Dinapigue Mining Corporation, Taganito Mining Corporation and Cagdianao Mining Corporation — all operating subsidiaries of NAC — hold approved MPSAs covering a combined 14,513.31 hectares.

Gatchalian

Meanwhile, Altai Mining Corporation traces its roots to the family of sitting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, as his brother, William Gatchalian, serves as the firm’s chairman.

The corporation has been under fire anew after the Sangguniang Bayan of San Fernando, Romblon, endorsed their application for the Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility on July 17 despite longstanding opposition from residents and environmental groups.

As stated in its approved MPSA, Altai Mining Corporation plans to use 1,580.80 hectares of land to extract iron, cobalt, chromite and other associated mineral deposits. 

While the MGB’s database lists the project as already in the exploration stage, it showed no records of Altai Mining Corporation’s exploration permit.

Romualdez

The Romualdez family has long been associated with Benguet Corporation, the country’s first and oldest mining firm.

Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, former House Speaker and first cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., served as one of its directors starting May 26, 1992, before he became chairman of the board on Oct. 22, 2002. Bulatlat found no publicly available corporate disclosure or company filing indicating when he stepped down as chairman. 

Benguet Corporation’s 2025 financial statement, however, no longer lists Romualdez among the company’s directors or officers.

His sister, Maria Remedios Romualdez-Pompidou, currently sits among its board of directors. Tingog Party List representative Andrew Romualdez, his son, recently resigned from his post as a director. He was replaced by Romualdez’s nephew, Luis Carlos Antonio Romualdez, on August 26, 2025.

Andrew Romualdez also stepped down from his post as a director in Marcventures Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries before he assumed office in May 2025. The previous year, Alyansa Tigil Mina reported that his father was linked to the same company.

The latest annual financial statement also revealed that Benguet Corporation garnered a gross revenue of P3.313 billion from nickel, gold, lime and silver sales. P1.83 billion came from nickel alone, as its 1,406.74-hectare tenement in Santa Cruz, Zambales continues commercial production under an MPSA valid until December 2030.

Benguet Corporation holds two other mineral ventures within the country: a gold mine in Itogon, Benguet, and a limestone processing facility in Baguio City, but MGB showed no record of the said gold mining tenement’s MPSA.

In the same document, the corporation expressed its interest in pursuing the Pantingan Gold Prospect in Bagac, Bataan Provinc?, the Zamboanga Gold Prospect in R.T. Lim, Zamboanga del Sur and the Asiga Copper and Gold Prospect in Santiago, Agusan Del Norte. 

According to the company, the said prospects had their corresponding MPSAs and exploration permits. However, there were no publicly available records on the MGB database.

Villar

Beyond property development, CEC identified the Villar family’s ties with one of the leading mining companies identified during the annual SPE: Apex Mining Co.

In the company’s general information sheet, it listed Prime Holdings Inc. as its top shareholder, comprising 50.68% of its ownership. Prime Holdings is chaired by the Villar patriarch, Manuel Villar Jr., while all three of his children, Senators Mark and Camille, and Manuel Paolo Villar are directors.

They are also linked to the Kingking Copper-Gold Project in Pantukan, Compostella Valley through St. Augustine Gold and Copper Ltd. (SAGC) and its joint venture agreement with the Nationwide Development Corporation, the government’s investment arm.

Manuel Paolo Villar serves as SAGC’s president and chief executive officer (CEO).

He is also the vice chairman of TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. (TVIRD), a firm which MGB lshows has a total of 5939.86 hectares of mining tenements. The copper mine currently in production in Diplahan, Zamboanga Sibugay, makes up the majority of the total, covering 4,779.00 hectares.

Michael Regino, former president and CEO of the Social Security System, is TVIRD’s president and chief operating officer of SAGC.

Under TVIRD, Regino and Villar are linked to Agata Mining Ventures Inc., which extracted nickel from a 4,995-hectare mining tenement in Jabonga, Agusan del Norte. MGB records show that the mine is now under final rehabilitation.

Teodoro

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., meanwhile, served as chairman of Sagittarius Mines Inc., which drew flak over its 26,501.62-hectare gold and copper mine in Tampakan, South Cotabato. The company’s website states it aims to begin production by 2028.

As the Zamora-founded firm led the highest gross revenue among the CEC’s list, Nueva Vizcaya Didipio mine operator Oceana Gold Philippines Inc. trailed closely behind.

Meanwhile, FCF Minerals Corporation generated P12.89 billion in revenue from gold sales at its Runruno mine in the province.

(Un)just transition

According to CEC, the government aims to increase the mining industry’s gross domestic product (GDP) contribution to two percent by 2028. 

In a proposal, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies showed that mining and quarrying remains “one of the smallest contributors” to the Philippine economy, accounting for only 0.7 percent of the GDP from 2023 to 2025.

With this goal comes the “expansion of mineral exploration projects, offshore mining activities, oversight of mining rights, and other initiatives designed to fast-track mineral development,” Palacio added.

In December 2025, Finance Secretary Frederick D. Go signed the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 12253, or the Enhanced Fiscal Regime for Large-Scale Metallic Mining Act. 

The IRR ushers in a new tax and fiscal framework to attract investment in the country’s mining industry while increasing the government’s share of revenues.

This measure comes as the administration sets its eyes on positioning the Philippines as a supplier of critical minerals.

As the government pursues what Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KATRIBU) Secretary General Funa-ay Claver described as an ‘aggressive push’ to expand mining in support of the renewable energy transition, she said indigenous people and the environment would pay the price through land dispossession, displacement and mounting ecological degradation.

“Critical minerals are needed to manufacture batteries for renewable energy projects. Based on available data, 27 percent of critical mineral mining overlaps with biodiversity zones, many of which in the Philippines are ancestral lands,” she said.

Despite this, Claver said resistance must remain steadfast because “Without resistance, they stand to lose everything — their land, their livelihoods, even their lives.” 

As the Marcos Jr. administration advances large-scale mining as part of its development agenda, residents like Enggo question whose interests ‘development’ ultimately serves.

“The kind of development they know is one that destroys nature,” she said.

“To me, development means ensuring that children are not deprived of the opportunity to go to school. It means having access to health clinics [and] providing support to farmers. That is what development means to me.” (RVO)