The Implications of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 to the Ancestral Domain of the Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines

Abstract

The Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines has long been the subject of displacement and various human rights violations. They are the poor victims of development projects of the government. Up until this moment the government has failed to recognize and understand their way of life and their traditions of communalism and their special relationship with their ancestral domains. In this research paper, the researcher would like to give you an idea about the implications to the ancestral domains of the Indigenous Peoples of one of the glaring development projects of the government since the time of President Fidel V. Ramos, the Republic Act 7942 otherwise known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The researcher used key-informants interviews, review of records and statistics from various government agencies like the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and intensive library research. Furthermore, the researcher used the Indigenous Peoples framework of development as against to that of the government in analyzing the data. At the end of the research, the investigator found out the glaring effects of the RA 7942 to the ancestral domains of the Indigenous Peoples. And these are displacement, militarization and various human rights violation. Moreover, the researcher’s recommendation is to repeal the mining act, promote a better mining code which gives importance to the welfare of those directly concerned, and most importantly, fully recognize the rights of the Indigenous Peoples over their ancestral domains.