Critical Minerals EO is Pax Silica: aim to fast-track 1,000% increase in mine area linked to ‘war production’

(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 opens up nine million hectares of prospective mineral areas to mining exploration, reservation, and ‘one-stop shop’ fast tracking. This represents a potential 1,000% increase of mining land area compared to the present total hectarage of approved mining projects,” said Atty. E.M. Taqueban, executive director of LRC.

“Particularly concerning is the inclusion of minerals critical for ‘National Defense’, alongside digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, in the establishment of a national exploration and mineral reservation program. This squarely frames our critical minerals policy within the Pax Silica framework, and confirms suspicions of the intent to link domestic mining and minerals processing to the ‘war production’ value chain,” Atty. Taqueban said.

Section 3 of the EO included minerals considered as ‘essential inputs’ to national defense, digital infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing in the categorization of critical minerals, which will subsequently be prioritized for State-led exploration and declaration of new mineral reservation areas (MRA).

LRC raised concern over this ‘wholesale approach’ to MRAs, noting that the present implementing rules of the Mining Act do not explicitly require free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) from Indigenous Peoples and the full resolution of grievances and concerns raised in public hearings before declaring an area as an MRA–and therefore solely for mineral use.

Section 7, meanwhile, creates a Virtual One-Stop Shop (VOSS) that will streamline requirements and procedures in permitting processes, including public consultations, and particularly directs the simultaneous processing of permits and clearances.

“The shift away from sequential to simultaneous regulatory procedures and permitting processes means FPIC processes and prior public consultations will likely happen without being informed by a prior environmental impact assessment. Communities cannot give informed consent to a mining project if they have yet to see and understand the full environmental impacts of that project,” Atty. Taqueban said.

EO 122 seeks to tap into at least nine million hectares identified as having high mineral potential, an area equivalent to more than 11 times the existing mining area of 813,575 hectares in the country. 

According to the 2025 Report on the State of Indigenous Address published by the LRC, at least 424,830 hectares or 54% of this mining area potentially overlaps with ancestral domains.

“The expansionist, accelerationist, and now war production-oriented critical minerals policy of the Marcos Jr administration poses a grave threat to Indigenous territories and their interconnected landscapes. Already entangled in half of our current approved mining project areas, Ancestral Domains will only face further environmental degradation, socio-economic and cultural loss if our mining laws remain business as usual,” said Atty. Taqueban. “Moreover, global military operations and supply chains account for an incredibly significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions at 5.5%. At a crucial time of a climate emergency, the government is instead accelerating the climate catastrophe with these policies.”  

The Center urged Congress to prioritize the passage of the Alternative Minerals Management Bill (House Bill No. 1852), which aims to restructure the country’s mining policy towards national industrialization, participatory governance, and rights-based and ecosystem-based approaches, before the government pursues the large-scale expansion of critical minerals development.#