(Quezon City, 24 September 2026) – 30 Indigenous leaders and rights advocates hailing from 12 provinces across the Philippines finished in a national paralegal training workshop focused on monitoring and documenting possible human rights violations from the impending roll-out of the 2026 Revised Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) Guidelines, under the context of the country’s pursuit of developing Pax Silica critical minerals and advanced manufacturing corridors. “This n

(Quezon City, August 27, 2026) Legal and policy group Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) today raised the alarm over the signing of Executive Order (EO) No. 122 establishing a national policy framework for developing the country’s critical minerals industry. LRC warned that the policy contains contentious provisions that undermine public participation and social safeguards, and that link the country’s minerals policy to the national defense industry. “EO 122 open

Kami, mga delegado at taguyod ng Pambansang Pagtitipon ng 2026 State of Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA), nagmumula sa labing-siyam (19) na tribu—Taboli Manobo, Dulangan Menubo, T’boli-Ubo, Blaan, Tëdurày, Lambangian, Manobo, Subanon, Erumanen ne Menuvu (vansa Kirinteken, Ilentungen, Sinemburanen, at Livunganen), Balatoc, Bontok, Ibaloy, Tuwali, Gaddang, Palaw’an, Tagbanwa, Ayta, Balangao-Lias, at Kankanaey —mula sa iba’t-ibang bahagi ng Pilipinas, kumakatawan sa mga Tradisy

(Quezon City, 05 August 2026) – Indigenous leaders and advocates hailing from 19 different tribes across the Philippines came together in a day of rituals and other culture-based actions to register their opposition to the new Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) Guidelines announced by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), warning that undermining the FPIC process clears the path for big, exploitative businesses to encroach on ancestral lands, forests, bi

(Quezon City—July 27, 2026) Legal, policy and advocacy group Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) warned that the latest pronouncements of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. in his fifth State of the Nation Address is pointing to a dirty energy and mining boom anchored on a resurgence of fossil fuel development and expansion of critical minerals demand. “Pres. Marcos Jr. 's declared pursuit of massive petroleum contracts, over 200 energy projects, a nuclear

(QUEZON CITY–July 23, 2026) Legal, policy, and advocacy institution Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) warned that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) impending new guidelines on Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) posed an ‘existential threat’ to the ancestral domains and rights of Indigenous Peoples through its dangerous provisions on shortened processes and diminished agencies. “The numerous draft iterations of the new FPIC Guidelines an

In Kalinga, a mountainous province in the North of the Philippines, an indigenous culture of resistance has safeguarded critical naturescapes since time immemorial. Covered by the 265,487-hectare North Central Cordillera biodiversity corridor, Kalinga’s landscapes are home to at least 319 floral and 150 faunal species, and headwaters to a broader watershed area that nurture pine, tropical, and mossy forests and irrigate heritage rice terraces and other agricultural lands. At

On World Environment Day, communities around the world continue to resist, adapt, and innovate in the face of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The Philippines stands as a striking example of all three. At the same time, the country is taking up the burden to accommodate various proposed solutions—large-scale renewable energy farms, forest carbon projects, and mining for energy transition minerals. At this critical moment, the C

(Koronadal, South Cotabato, May 15, 2026) With environmental impact reports on the controversial Tampakan Copper-Gold Project being withheld from the public, scientists, communities, civil society, and public officials gathered last May 13 to confront the interconnected ecological risks posed by the mine’s continued development. The project straddles the quadri-boundary of the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and Davao del Sur. “Frontline communities an

Trade, as one of humanity’s oldest and most defining social activities (Curtin, 1984; Frank & Gills, 1993), has shaped and been shaped by power. Today, the global trading system is at a pivotal point. What we are witnessing is not a simple shift, but an active reconstruction, driven by state and corporate powers as they grapple with the converging crises of climate, supply chains, and geopolitical tension. The emerging strategy of “friendshoring” is presented as a pragmatic,