"Mining companies exploiting Indigenous peoples", 12 April 2026

… Philippines is blessed with great mineral wealth. It has an abundance of nickel, copper, gold, cobalt, chromite, iron ore, manganese, zinc, lead, mercury, and even rare earth elements. It also has vast resources of renewable energy — wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass — yet it depends on burning coal, the most hazardous fuel in the world. It has a highly educated, culturally diverse, talented and intelligent population, and yet there is wealth disparity…

Little or none of this revenue benefits the Filipinos from whose ancestral lands the minerals were extracted. This is the injustice and shame of the nation that few know or care about. Serious conflicts have broken out between the Lumads, Indigenous peoples of Mindanao, … These conflicts have lasted for decades, with as many as 5,000 people displaced and anti-mining advocates murdered.

In the Caraga region, specifically Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Norte provinces, mining companies such as Marcventures Mining and Development Corp., Taganito Mining Corp. and Platinum Group Metals Corp. reportedly operate with impunity. These corporations have allegedly moved into ancestral lands and damaged the environment, where nearly 84 percent of nickel tenements overlap with ancestral domains and biodiversity hotspots. These environmental issues have resulted in violence and the highest recorded number of killings of Indigenous and anti-mining activists. As many as 298 land defenders have been killed; a third were Indigenous. They make up 15 percent (17 million) of the Philippine population and live with nature.