By Billy Begas
House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima called for a congressional investigation into issues and concerns surrounding the renewal, extension, and modification of Financial or Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAAs) in the mining sector.
In House Resolution 1016, De Lima cited the need to determine whether the Department of Environment and Natural Resources–Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB) complied with mandatory consultation requirements in the issuance and renewal of mining permits and Financial or Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAAs) and whether the rights of affected communities to participation and local autonomy have been respected.
According to DENR Administrative Order 63, FTAA is an agreement or contract that the government enters into with any Filipino or foreign-owned corporation for financial or technical assistance in large-scale exploration, development, and utilization of mineral resources.
“The requirement for consultation is NOT a mere procedural step or bureaucratic compliance requirement. It must center on the community’s right to say ‘no,’ to withhold consent to projects they deem unacceptable. It must provide adequate time for genuine deliberation – not mere rubber-stamping. Anything less is a clear disregard of the people’s welfare and a betrayal of the Constitution,” De Lima stressed.
“Half-measures that deny communities the power to reject mining that is deleterious to their health and well-being are no consultation at all; it is mere theatre. Palabas. Pakitang-tao,” she added.
De Lima underscored the need to transform community consultation “from a bureaucratic checkbox into a meaningful exercise of democratic power.”
“We must demand that every voice be heard, that every concern be valued, that every dissent be respected,” she added.
Under the Local Government Code (Republic Act 7160), national government agencies and GOCCs are required to secure prior public consultation with LGUs, nongovernmental organizations, and other sectors concerned, and to obtain the approval of the appropriate Sanggunian, before implementing any project or program that may cause pollution, climatic change, depletion of non-renewable resources, loss of crop land, rangeland, or forest cover, and extinction of animal or plant species.
De Lima noted that the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Philippine Mining Act (Republic Act 7942, as amended) mandates LGU officials to ensure that relevant laws on consultations are complied with.
The lady solon cited the FTAA 001 held by OceanaGold Philippines, Inc. covering Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, which was reportedly extended by the Office of the President in 2021 without any consultation.
FTAA 002, held by Sagittarius Mines, Inc. in Tampakan, South Cotabato, De Lima said, was also extended without proper public consultation.
“The DENR-MGB’s failure to enforce mandatory consultation requirements represents an institutional disregard for local autonomy and democratic participation, effectively treating affected communities as obstacles to development,” the Resolution read.
“Renewal of FTAAs should entail fresh consultation, as the consent obtained for the original contract period cannot reasonably be assumed to subsist, as if to bind future generations who are experiencing drastically altered socio-environmental circumstances,” it added.
