23 June 2022

Ten days before the end of the Duterte presidency, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III withdrew the Philippines from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a mechanism that ensured the government discloses key information about extractive industry operations and earnings, and engages with environmental activists and communities.

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The EITI Board pointed to “government constraints on freedom of expression, operation, and association in the EITI process” and even specifically mentioned the feared anti-terrorism law championed by President Rodrigo Duterte at the behest of retired military generals in his Cabinet.

“Validation identified alleged instances of intimidation of civil society activists and journalists. It is possible that these are linked to the interventions or stated positions of these individuals on extractive operations or on issues concerning extractive investments. Validation also identified the apparent use of the 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act to justify attempts at police intervention, judicial action or intimidation which may have limited civil society freedoms,” reads part of the report.

Dominguez assailed the use of ‘irrelevant metrics’ and alleged reliance on “unvalidated reports,” said the DOF. He said the EITI was making impositions on the Philippines that “violate the country’s sovereignty.”

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