Palace nixes calls for suspending mining rules.

May 21, 2012

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Monday announced that the Palace rejected the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines’ request to suspend the revised guidelines on Free and Prior Informed Consent as modified by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NICP).

Lacierda said that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. had met with the NCIP, to discuss the letter sent by the mines chamber. It was decided not to suspend or further change the revised FPIC guidelines.

According to the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997,  the Free and Prior Informed Consent guidelines are “the consensus of all members of the Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples to be determined in accordance with their respective customary laws and practices, free from any external manipulation, interference and coercion, and obtained after fully disclosing the intent and scope of the activity, in a language an process understandable to the community.”

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