Tinio slams Marcos Jr.'s EO 122 as wholesale surrender of Philippine mineral wealth to foreign and big mining corporations, hits link to Pax Silica

PRESS RELEASE Rep. Antonio Tinio ACT Teachers PL August 23, 2026

Tinio slams Marcos Jr.’s EO 122 as wholesale surrender of Philippine mineral wealth to foreign and big mining corporations, hits link to Pax Silica

ACT Teachers Representative and Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio today strongly condemned Executive Order No. 122, signed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on August 18, which establishes a national policy framework for the so-called development of the critical minerals industry, warning that it will lead to the massive displacement of farmers and indigenous peoples and cement the country’s role as a mere supplier of raw minerals and materials for foreign economies.

EO 122, which reorganizes the Mining Industry Coordinating Council and lays the groundwork for the accelerated privatization of government-owned mining assets and the streamlining of mining permits, effectively hands over the nation’s mineral resources to foreign companies and large-scale mining corporations under the guise of “national priority projects” and “clean energy transition.”

“This executive order is a wholesale surrender of our national patrimony to foreign and big corporate interests. Despite its lofty language of industrialization and value-adding, the reality is that EO 122 reduces the Philippines to a source of cheap raw minerals for the global green technology value chain, while our people bear the brunt of environmental destruction and displacement,” Tinio said.

The lawmaker warned that the order’s provisions on national exploration and mineral reservation, the strict implementation of the “Use It or Lose It” policy, and the accelerated privatization of government-owned mining assets will fast-track the entry of large-scale mining into at least nine million hectares of prospective areas, threatening agricultural lands and ancestral domains.

“The ones who will truly benefit from this policy are foreign corporations and big mining companies. They will extract our critical minerals, export them as raw materials, and leave our environment devastated and our people displaced. This is not industrialization—it is plunder,” Tinio stressed.

Tinio also flagged the direct connection between EO 122 and the Pax Silica project, a massive AI-centered hub and processing operation that has already sparked fierce resistance from affected communities. He warned that the executive order appears tailored to provide the legal and regulatory scaffolding for projects like Pax Silica to operate with impunity, overriding local opposition and environmental safeguards in the name of “critical minerals” development.

“Look no further than the Pax Silica project to see exactly who this EO is designed to serve. Pax Silica threatens to displace farming communities and destroy critical ecosystems, all to produce silica for foreign green energy supply chains. EO 122’s provisions on streamlining mining permits and declaring critical mineral projects as ‘national priority projects’ will be weaponized to ram through projects like Pax Silica, silencing community opposition and circumventing local government authority,” Tinio said.

“The Marcos Jr. administration is using the climate agenda and the rhetoric of clean energy transition to justify the plunder of our natural resources. Pax Silica is a glaring example of how ‘critical minerals’ development translates on the ground: foreign and corporate interests extracting our resources at the expense of our environment and the Filipino people,” he added.

He also criticized the streamlining and digitalization of the mining permitting process through a virtual one-stop shop, warning that it will bypass meaningful public consultation and facilitate the expedited approval of mining applications at the expense of affected communities.

“The so-called streamlining of the permitting process is a smokescreen for railroading mining projects without genuine community consent. It undermines the rights of farmers, indigenous peoples, and local communities who will be displaced from their lands and livelihoods,” Tinio said.

Tinio also took aim at the inclusion of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Chairperson in the reorganized MICC, noting that the NCIP has historically functioned as a rubber stamp for mining applications rather than a genuine protector of indigenous peoples’ rights.

“The inclusion of the NCIP in the MICC is tokenism at best. The NCIP has time and again facilitated the entry of mining corporations into ancestral domains rather than defending indigenous communities from encroachment. This framework will only worsen the attacks on indigenous peoples’ rights and their lands,” he said.

The ACT Teachers solon called on the Filipino people, especially farmers, indigenous peoples, environmental advocates, and affected communities, to resist EO 122 and demand the repeal of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, which has long served as the legal backbone for the plunder of the country’s mineral resources.

“We cannot allow our country to be reduced to a quarry for foreign industries. We must fight for a genuinely nationalist and pro-people mining policy that prioritizes domestic industrialization, protects our environment, and upholds the rights of farmers, indigenous peoples, and all affected communities. EO 122 is a blueprint for plunder, and we must oppose it at every turn,” Tinio ended.###