Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 05 2025
Manila, Philippines — On June 5, World Environment Day, environmental advocates, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples led by Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) and Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) held a protest at the Supreme Court in Manila to denounce recent court rulings that, they argue, undermine environmental protection and the rights of local communities.
The protest was a response to two landmark decisions: the nullification of the 25-year mining moratorium in Occidental Mindoro, and the ruling allowing commercial fishing vessels within the 15-kilometer municipal waters – rulings that the groups warn set dangerous precedents, threatening marine ecosystems and deepening the marginalization of small-scale fishers and indigenous peoples.
Kalikasan PNE emphasized that the Supreme Court’s rulings expose significant flaws in the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and the Fisheries Code of 1998. “By allowing large-scale mining and commercial fishing in areas previously protected, these decisions trample on the rights of local governments and communities to safeguard their environment and well-being,” Jonila Castro, National Spokesperson of Kalikasan stated.
“These decisions effectively open up around 90% of our municipal waters to exploitation by large commercial fishing operations, jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of small fisherfolks nationwide,” said PAMALAKAYA secretary general Salvador ‘ka Buddy’ France. “This not only threatens our food security but also accelerates the depletion of our marine resources.”
“For more than two decades of this law’s implementation, indigenous communities have continued to face deception and violence.” said Ephin Falyao of Siklab Philippine Indigenous Youth Network. “The NCIP is being used as a rubber stamp for mining companies.”
“Under these destructive laws the people are denied their right to a healthy environment. These laws enrich the few and silence those who defend the land. Nature belongs to the people, not to corporations.” said Alyssa Darunday of Panatang Luntian.
The protest culminated in a booming noise barrage and a visual tableau of a family with empty plates—an unflinching symbol of the hunger and injustice these rulings unleash on marginalized communities. The action also featured a symbolic tearing of the Supreme Court decision and related laws, underscoring the people’s collective and outright rejection of policies that favor destructive industries over the welfare of the masses.
“We demand the junking of the Mining Act of 1995 and the passage of the People’s Mining Bill,” Castro asserted. “Our lands are not for plunder, and our people will not bow to greed. The power to decide our future belongs to us, not to corporations or corrupt officials.”
