National cohort of paralegals to monitor new FPIC Guidelines in the face of Pax Silica

(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 new batch of community paralegals under our Palihang Panumduman training program is ready to monitor and document Indigenous Peoples’ rights violations anticipated from the shortened timelines, diminished remedies, and bypasses of the impending new 2026 FPIC Guidelines,” said Leon Dulce, Campaigns Support and Linkages Coordinator of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources (LRC) and one of the training facilitators. 

“The new FPIC Guidelines come at a time of an emerging critical minerals and advanced manufacturing rush spurred by the Pax Silica Declaration. The potential economic and industrial corridors of the Pax Silica agreements are expected to cut sharply across Ancestral Domains throughout the country,” explained Dulce.

The new FPIC Guidelines have drawn opposition from Indigenous communities over deregulatory provisions that threaten to disrupt customary consensus-building and decision making processes. These concerns take on added urgency as the government moves to expand critical minerals, energy, and advanced manufacturing development under Pax Silica. 

Concurrent policies linked to industries involved in Pax Silica, such as the Energy Virtual One Stop Shop Act and the Executive Order 122 on Critical Minerals, are institutionalizing fast lanes for permitting that further undercut the FPIC process.

The graduating paralegals confirmed the threats to their right to FPIC in their various territories.

“Unfortunately, in the case of the Tarlac Pax Silica project, no consultation has been conducted, as mandated by the Indigenous People’s Rights Act. Our indigenous communities in Capas, Tarlac have only found out about it in the news, without any information on what the project will cover, violating the essence of FPIC,” said Rica Torres, spokesperson of the Ayta organization Mansaway. 

“Our biggest concern right now is that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples has ignored for the longest time our applications for ancestral domains, which we have applied for back in 1988. Considering the guidelines, we worry that critical minerals mining will continue in the lands that belong to our tribe. If new FPIC guidelines are implemented, the least we ask is for a moratorium so that we can ensure genuine consensus,” Timuoy Walter Timol, head claimant of Gutalac Baliguian Siocon Ancestral Domain, said.

“In an environmental investigation we conducted on the Olongapo Solar Farm of Aboitiz, we confirmed that no consent was given by Indigenous communities. The proponents failed to provide comprehensive and complete information about the potential impacts of the project in the community. Many have reported that they were not included in the consultation and decision-making process and only found out about the project when it began construction,” Ephin Falyao, a Balangao-Ilyas youth leader and national coordinator of Siklab Philippine Indigenous Youth Network, said. 

LRC launched a new briefer on the 2026 Revised FPIC Guidelines, providing Indigenous communities, paralegals, and rights advocates with a resource for understanding the new rules and their implications for the FPIC process. ###