ABSTRACT
The minerals industry of the Philippines goes back to the pre-colonial era. Beginning the American period, the series of laws that had been enacted focused on securing private rights and tenure over mineral lands, thus easing the exploitation of minerals and achieving large productions. Meanwhile, the well-worded laws that aimed to protect the environment, which had been passed particularly during the Marcos administration, were brazenly disregarded by mining companies due mainly to political interventions and cronyism. Serious repercussions of the failure in state policy and enforcement eventually emerged as exemplified by the Marcopper disaster in 1996. The incident served as one of several key catalysts to opposition to mining led by civil society entities and the religious sector. The current terrain of mining features an enduring public antagonism to the industry based on primarily environment protection and nationalist grounds. They key arguments for and against mining have surfaced in the interlocution of key actors in the saga of the Mining Act of 1995, which had undergone almost a decade-long legal gridlock. Across the Philippines, villages and towns are affected by mining operations, some negatively and others positively, in varying degrees.
