Peace Review

A Journal of Social Justice

ISSN: 1040-2659 (Print) 1469-9982 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cper20

Indigenous Communities’ Resistance to Corporate

Mining in the Philippines

Roland G. Simbulan

To cite this article: Roland G. Simbulan (2016) Indigenous Communities’

Resistance to Corporate Mining in the Philippines, Peace Review, 28:1, 29-37, DOI:
10.1080/10402659.2016.1130373

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2016.1130373

Published online: 16 Feb 2016.

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 Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 28:29–37
Copyright 
C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN 1040-2659 print; 1469-9982 online

DOI: 10.1080/10402659.2016.1130373

Indigenous Communities’ Resistance to

Corporate Mining in the Philippines
ROLAND G. SIMBULAN
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Organization is the weapon of the weak in their struggle with the strong. —Robert
Michels

On September 1, 2015, three highly respected leaders of the Lumad,

non-Muslim and non-Christian indigenous peoples in the island of Mindanao,
Philippines, were brutally shot and hacked to death. According to witnesses,
this was perpetrated by a paramilitary group, trained and armed for coun-
terinsurgency by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). One of those
killed was Emerico Samarca, director of the Alternative Learning Center for
Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV), a school for Lumad
children. These recent killings of the Lumad people in Mindanao are not
isolated. They highlight a bloody pattern of killings and impunity directed
against indigenous peoples’ communities in the Philippines.
During the past five years alone, since July 2010 under President B.S.
Aquino, 73 people from indigenous peoples’ communities nationwide have
been killed, of which 57 are Lumads in Mindanao. Why are these deplorable
attacks and violence being inflicted on indigenous communities in the Philip-
pines? Why are mining companies and their operations in the Philippines
often accompanied by militarization and violence in the ancestral lands of
indigenous peoples?

W hen Spanish colonizers came to the Philippines in 1521, they

invoked the Regalian Doctrine, which declared that all lands belong
to the King of Spain, effectively dispossessing the peoples of the Philippine
Islands of their territories. This colonial dispossession “in the name of God”
was based and reinforced by the Vatican’s 1452 Papal Bull—the Doctrine of
Discovery—authorizing European monarchs “to invade, vanquish, subdue and
to take away all their possessions and property” of pagans and non-Christians.
But while the majority of the population on the Philippine Islands was sub-
jugated, assimilated, and Christianized, the indigenous peoples were able to

29
 30 INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES’ RESISTANCE TO CORPORATE MINING

defend their territories or retreated further inland in mountainous areas. These

have become the remaining ancestral domains of the indigenous peoples that
sit on the richest natural resources of the country. The Regalian Doctrine con-
tinues to be enforced by post-colonial Philippine governments; they define all
ancestral lands as “public domain.”
Indigenous peoples have a natural world outlook integrated with the
environment. Macli’ing Dulag, a Kalinga leader in the Cordilleras who was
assassinated and became a victim of development aggression, once said, “You
ask us if we own the land. And mock us, ‘Where is your title?’ Such arrogance
of owning the land when you shall be owned by it. How can you own that
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which will outlive you?” Indigenous peoples have a feeling of oneness with
the land. In their view, land is the source of life. Land is life. Since it is
on land that one’s ancestors are buried, they believe that the earth is man’s
sacred relative, and a very special relationship based on nurturing, caring, and
sharing exists. Indigenous peoples also believe that the spirit of creation is
in all things in nature, for all life forms are related to each other, that every
aspect of the natural world and earth should be honored and respected, even
worshipped. This worldview centers on respect for all living things in the past,
present, and future: the land is not theirs to give away, or to sell.
In the Philippines today, extractive mining industries and corporate ex-
ploitation are the gravest threats facing indigenous peoples and their commu-
nities. These mining projects gravely violate indigenous people’s collective
rights to lands and resources. These extractive industries have subjected the
indigenous communities to forced eviction from their ancestral lands, loss of
livelihood, disintegration of communal ties, and militarization.

C apitalism, and the neo-liberal economic system that it has bred, has no
respect for people’s rights in many developing countries. The commodi-
fication of societies has led to an ever-growing demand for the rapid exploita-
tion of remaining natural resources of land, timber, water, and minerals. To
implement its profit-driven development model, the Philippine government
has liberalized the mining industry through the Philippine Mining Act of
1995 (Republic Act 7942), the 2004 National Mineral Policy Agenda (Execu-
tive Order 270), and the Mineral Action Plan ostensibly to achieve economic
growth. As a result of these policies, large-scale mining in the Philippines
grew from 17 operations in 1999 to 46 operations in 2015. Big mining firms
with multinational mining companies are given preferential treatment, and
have collided with indigenous peoples’ communities.
But the indigenous peoples in the Philippines, together with their allies in
social movements, are fighting back and resisting these threats to their survival,
their lands, and their way of life. In recent years, the devastating consequences
of the extractive industries under a neo-liberal model of development on the
lives of the people has become a unifying issue for various sectors of Filipino
 ROLAND G. SIMBULAN 31

society to resist mining projects in various parts of the country. Large-scale

mine-spill disasters, for example in Marinduque and Benguet provinces, have
only increased awareness against neo-liberal mining policies.
Indigenous peoples in the Philippines have organized themselves in a na-
tional federation of indigenous peoples’ organizations, KATRIBU (Kalipunan
ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas). Since 2009, KATRIBU has
identified all indigenous peoples’ territories endangered by foreign mining
corporations. In northern Luzon, the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA)
spearheads the indigenous people’s resistance against encroachments on
their ancestral lands. In Mindanao, the Lumad peoples have organized the
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Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (KALUMARAN). In Palawan, there is the

Federation of Tribes in Palawan (NATRIPAL).

T he Lumads of Mindanao, with the support of church people who are

respected educators, have established their own schools in their commu-
nities. Long neglected by the national and local government and bereft of
basic social services, they have established these schools for their enlight-
enment and to uplift themselves from poverty. A prime example of this is
the ALCADEV school whose director, Emerico Samarca, was recently killed
by a paramilitary group. The network of Lumad schools such as ALCADEV
not only provide basic education to the indigenous communities, but they
are also a means for empowering themselves so they are conscious of their
rights, while helping preserve their rich indigenous culture and practices. The
Philippine government recently ordered the closing of the Lumad schools
and their conversion into military barracks. For the Lumad, however, the
schools are proud symbols of their community’s resistance against devel-
opment aggression of mining companies. These schools help preserve their
belief, culture, and practice that “land is life” and that the community can
collectively struggle for an ecologically sustainable way of life.
From the hinterlands of Mindanao to the northern ranges of Luzon,
where mining projects in Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya have made inroads like
the Nickel Project of the island of Mindoro, indigenous peoples’ ancestral
lands are under siege by international mining companies that operate with the
support of the Philippine state. In Mindoro, in particular, despite the heavy
militarization of their communities, the Mangyan indigenous people and their
allies have organized the Unity of Mindoro Against Foreign Mining.
Their struggle is supported by social movements that represent a broad
cross-section of the population: by church groups, environmental groups, stu-
dents, farmers’ associations, lawyers, and scientists. There are environmen-
tal nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like the national KALIKASAN-
People’s Network for the Environment (KPNE), which are involved in anti-
mining issues. The Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-
Phils.) considers its advocacy not just a struggle for the environment, but for
 32 INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES’ RESISTANCE TO CORPORATE MINING

the people’s rights to control and secure the nation’s natural resources. CEC-
Phils. has published materials for environmental advocacy, including putting
out an album of environmental songs. There is now an acknowledgement
that strong linkages among scientists and affected communities are needed to
provide credible evidence of the destructive effects of mining on the health
of the people and their environment. A national organization of scientists,
engineers, and technologists—the AGHAM (Science and Technology for the
People)—has taken this step forward in the anti-mining campaign.

L egal suits and actions to stop mining plunder have been part of the
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long struggle against mining in the Philippines. Legal Initiatives by the

National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) and the Union of People’s
Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) have blocked mining operations, even filing
legal cases up to the Philippine Supreme Court. In Palawan, lawyers have
set up the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC). People’s lawyers
continue to work to stop mining companies and the Philippine state actions to
criminalize anti-mining protests.
A broad anti-mining advocacy group is the Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM).
This alliance has linked local groups like the Southern Tagalog Environ-
mental Movement (STEAM) with national organizations like the Kalikasan-
Philippine Network for the Environment. National peasant federations like
the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Unyon ng Mangga-
gawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) have consistently resisted the Philippine Mining
Act. Lastly, there is the Movement Against Mining TNCs and Plunder of Re-
sources. Its spokesperson is KATRIBU secretary-general Pia Malayao from
the Cordilleras. In my conversation with Ms. Malayao, she said: “For the
indigenous peoples, if there are no mountains, there is no life.” She added
that the Philippine Mining Act, since its passage in 1995, has only become
a tool for the legitimization of environmental plunder, land grabbing, human
rights violations, and the loss of traditional livelihoods of indigenous peoples,
farmers, and fishermen.
Mass resistance is not the only active focus of those opposing mining in
the Philippines. Engaging in exploring alternatives to mining is as important.
Indigenous communities are raising their awareness of their rights, design-
ing and implementing their own development paths, engaging in community
participatory mapping and resource inventories, exploring participatory tools
measuring the extent of implementation of legal instruments, using traditional
knowledge systems, waging campaigns, and strengthening their movements
at all levels.

S ome of the tools of resistance against mining developed through expe-

rience and practice in the Philippines include: research, popularization,
and human rights monitoring and documentation in communities threatened
 ROLAND G. SIMBULAN 33

and/or affected by large-scale mining operations; capacity-building for im-

poverished and marginalized sections of the population to enable them to
defend their rights in the name of survival as indigenous communities; strong
technical collaborating and linking among environmental scientists and af-
fected communities, in order to expose the destructive effects of mining on
the health of the people and the environment; coordinating legal suits and
actions to stop industrial mining plunder; and forming active networks for
research on corporate and financial aspects of mining.
It is also imperative for communities and their support groups to share
each other’s experiences of resistance and struggle. Active networks for re-
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search on corporate and financial aspects of mining are needed while legal
suits and actions to stop industrial mining plunder are being coordinated. It is
now also being realized that they need to support the development of global
mechanisms made available by the UN and European Union that one can use
to hold governments and corporations accountable.
Indigenous women have also organized to actively resist mining oper-
ations in their ancestral lands. Groups like the Cordillera Women’s Action
Research Center document the health and safety impact of mining on women
and children. The National Federation of Peasant Women in the Philippines
(AMIHAN) has also mobilized to join forces with indigenous women. Among
Lumad communities in Mindanao, they have organized the Confederation of
Lumad Women in Southern Mindanao (SABOKAHAN). Women from lo-
cal communities have always taken the lead in organizing local anti-mining
groups like the Anislagan Bantay Kalikasan Task Force (ABAKATAF) in
Surigao del Norte, the Save Apayao People’s Organization (SAPO) in the
Cordilleras, and the Didipio Earth Savers Multi-purpose Association, which
recently rolled back the operations of mining companies in Nueva Vizcaya.

T he Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has asked for

the repeal of the Philippine Mining Act, citing “the devastating effects
and adverse social impacts of mining that will destroy both environment and
people.” The Mining Act, it said, “destroys life.” The Philippine churches’
anti-mining campaigns are anchored in the belief that resistance to mining
is a “defense of creation.” The churches have consistently given support to
indigenous peoples’ anti-mining struggles. They have facilitated Fact-Finding
Missions on human rights violations and militarization in indigenous peoples’
communities. They have mobilized for Lakbayan Peoples’ Marches to high-
light the plight of the indigenous peoples and their struggle against mining.
Truly, when local communities struggling for life against mining get together
and become more connected, they become a strong national force.
The violence inflicted by the state through its military and paramilitary
units against peaceful, legal, and open resistance to mining in the hinterlands
has only pushed many indigenous peoples and farmers into resorting to armed
 34 INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES’ RESISTANCE TO CORPORATE MINING

defense of their ancestral lands. The AFP claims that more than 70 percent of
the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Mindanao are from the Lumad tribes.
But in fact, the Philippine military has, by its actions, become the number-one
recruiter of the NPAs coming from the Lumads. It is the mining companies and
the militarization of their communities that have pushed Lumads into armed
resistance. The situation has become so fertile for the NPA—increasingly
regarded by many as the genuine army of the poor—that the longest-existing
guerrilla army in the world has joined the Lumad and farmer communities
in resisting mining companies and operations. The situation has become a
fertile ground for extra-legal operations by NPA units, such as the destruction
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of mining equipment. In one incident, 50 container vans of the Tampakan

mining project in Mindanao were burned by the NPA.
In Palawan—declared by United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as one of the world’s last biodiversity
reserves—indigenous peoples have declared a “Karaban” against mining. In
indigenous language, Karaban is a bamboo quiver that holds darts for a blow-
pipe. It is a symbolic form of militant action that they are willing to take to
stop the intrusion of mining companies on their traditional territories. In sum,
the multiple forms of resistance to mining have included awareness-raising
activities, mass mobilizations, road blockades, lobbying with the Philippine
Congress, legal cases before the courts—including the Supreme Court, local
government ordinances, and armed resistance.

C onfronted with global mining corporations, like-minded individuals, and

social movements from various countries have linked up to share expe-
riences and strategies in their struggles against mining. Filipino anti-mining
activists have helped establish regional and international platforms for solidar-
ity and support for indigenous communities affected by state and corporate
projects implemented in their territories. They have forged ranks with the
Indigenous Peoples Global Network on the Extractive Industries (IPGNEI).
In response to extractive industries and corporate exploitation, indige-
nous peoples’ organizations in Asia, including the national federation of in-
digenous peoples in the Philippines (KATRIBU), established the Asia In-
digenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy (AIPNEE) in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 13, 2015. The international network of
anti-mining organizations is proposing to the Permanent International People’s
Tribunal to put global mining companies on trial for the displacement of in-
digenous peoples and environmental destruction. An Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) People’s Treaty has also been drafted that includes
restrictions on mining operations in indigenous peoples’ ancestral lands.
To highlight international solidarity for anti-mining activities, Filipino
environmental and indigenous people’s organizations hosted the International
People’s Conference on Mining (IPCM) in Manila on July 30–August 1, 2015.
 ROLAND G. SIMBULAN 35

This unprecedented international summit of global anti-mining activists and

scientists brought together 63 international organizations from 28 countries
and 53 local groups in the Philippines to share lessons and to strategize a
global campaign against the mining industry and its consequences. These
international networks seek to better understand mining industry trends to
effectively strategize to counter the industry’s myth of “sustainable mining.”

M ining methods like black sand, unsystematic strip, and open-pit mining
that threaten and even poison rivers and agricultural lands cannot, by
any stretch of one’s imagination, become sustainable. The unions under the
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Metal Workers’ Alliance of the Philippines have not only worked for better
working conditions of mineworkers, but are also beginning to put pressure
on mining companies not to disregard the health and safety of communities
where mining operations exist.
Perhaps the best alternatives to mining are the growing initiatives of
indigenous communities to develop more sustainable and equitable forms
of development. While the indigenous peoples and their supporters want
the 1995 Mining Act to be scrapped, they have proposed and lobbied for
a “People’s Mining Bill” filed by sympathetic legislators in the Philippine
House of Representatives. This bill, if it becomes law, would strictly regulate
large-scale mining and ban it from indigenous people’s territory (ancestral
lands) where more than 60 percent of mining companies in the Philippines
operate today.
Inspiring victories have been achieved in the local community campaigns
against mining in the Philippines. Notably, the mining giant Glencore XTrata
withdrew from the Tampakan mines in Cotabato, Mindanao and, because
of local resistance to mining, even the local government banned open-pit
mining from the area. Earlier, Australia’s Western Mining had sold its share
to Glencore XTrata. Local community awareness and struggles are decisive as
these have often invited support from lawyers’ groups, the influential Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, and the Rural Missionaries of the
Philippines. Scientists and doctors have also mobilized to do environmental
investigations and health surveys for endangered communities.

I n 1997 the women of Itogon, Mt. Province stopped six open mining sites,
while that same year in the Cordillera, the people agreed to have a Unity
Pact of Tribes against mining operations of the Benguet Consolidated Mining.
In 2012, Philex, one of the Philippines’ largest producers of gold and copper,
was slapped with a 1-billion peso fine by the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources for releasing mine tailings into mountain streams in
Benguet. In Pangasinan province, black sand mining has been temporarily
stopped because of the lobbying by local and national organizations opposed
to mining.
 36 INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES’ RESISTANCE TO CORPORATE MINING

Fortunately, local governments are beginning to heed the call of indige-

nous peoples and farmers’ communities to stop approving mining applications
and operations. The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) has
proposed to ban large-scale mining as part of the efforts to curb the effects
of climate change and global warming in the Philippines. Nine provinces
have declared mining moratoriums through official resolutions. In 1999, a
few years after the 1996 poisoning of the 27-kilometer Boac River caused by
Marcopper’s Marinduque Mining, 218 barangays (local government units) of
Marinduque province signed resolutions banning mining activities. These re-
flect the growing strength and influence of the struggle of indigenous com-
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munities against destructive large-scale mining, contradicting national mining

policies and programs.
The awareness and organization of indigenous communities against min-
ing, and the multisectoral support by various sectors of Filipino society, have
put pressure on the national government and mining corporations to be more
accountable. This was after the adoption of the United Nations’ Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007. In its pronouncements,
the Philippine government claims to uphold and protect indigenous peoples’
rights. But in practice, the government’s profit-driven development policy as-
sures that extractive industries are given more priority in indigenous people’s
territories than the indigenous people’s rights and welfare, resulting in con-
tinuing forced eviction from ancestral lands, loss of livelihood, disintegration
of communal ties, and militarization.
In conclusion, the Philippine indigenous peoples’ communities have had
to continue to assert and defend their historic right to their lands and their
way of life. Today, they face a renewed threat from mining companies and
their operations. And since mining and militarization go hand in hand, these
grassroots communities must also defend themselves against violent attacks
on their lives, families, and communities. It is a continuing struggle for their
right to their ancestral domains and survival as a people. Nevertheless, the
mining issue has only galvanized the unity of indigenous peoples of the
Philippines, and with other sectors of Philippine society as well.
As expressed so aptly by Vicky Corpus-Tauli, an indigenous peoples’
leader from the Philippines and currently the UN Special Rapporteur on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: “The systematic violation of indigenous
peoples’ rights ranging from arbitrary arrests, labeling of indigenous organi-
zations, leaders and activists as terrorists, torture, and extrajudicial killings
continue. However, the assertion of their rights and their resistance against
incursions into their lands by extractive industries and land-grabbers has
strengthened.”
 ROLAND G. SIMBULAN 37

RECOMMENDED READINGS
Karapatan. 2014. Karapatan Year-end Report on the Human Rights Situation in the Philippines.
Report No. 17:17. Quezon City: Karapatan. Available at <http://www.karapatan.org>, last
accessed January 12, 2016.
Panalipdan and InPeace Mindanao. 2015. Undermining Patrimony: Large-scale Mining Plun-
der in Mindanao, and the People’s Continuing Struggle and Resistance. Davao: RMP.
TIBALYAW. 2014. Official Publication of the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng
Pilipinas (Federation of Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines). December Issue.
Tujan, Antonio Jr. and Rosario Bella Guzman. 2002. Globalizing Philippine Mining. Revised
Edition. Quezon City: Ibon Foundation.
Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao. 2014. The Reality of Modern Warlordism in
Downloaded by [University of Pennsylvania] at 09:31 27 February 2016

Mindanao. Davao: ULPS.

Roland G. Simbulan is a Professor of Development Studies and Public Management at the University
of the Philippines and has written extensively on social movements, nongovernmental organizations, and
civil society organizations, notably the anti-nuclear and anti-bases movement in the Philippines. In 2008,
he wrote “The Future of the Philippine Left.” E-mail: profroland@gmail.com