An Indigenous rights group has warned that proposed Philippine rules on Free, Prior and Informed Consent could weaken communities’ power to reject mining, dams and renewable energy projects on ancestral lands.
Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) said the proposed 2026 FPIC Guidelines contain provisions that could favor faster project processing over customary decision-making and stronger safeguards for Indigenous Peoples.
“FPIC is not merely an administrative procedure for securing project approval. It is a fundamental right and an expression of Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination and their rights to lands, territories and resources,” IPRI said in an Aug. 12 statement.
The group flagged provisions allowing majority voting to replace customary consensus-building, shorter procedures for exploration and some pre-development activities, reduced periods for community deliberation, deemed approval through administrative inaction, and rapid reconsideration when communities withhold consent.
“A community’s ‘no’ must be respected. FPIC cannot become a process of repeatedly seeking consent until a project proponent obtains the answer it wants,” IPRI said.
In its rights-based review of the proposed guidelines, IPRI said the 2012 rules allow communities up to two months for consensus-building. The proposed guidelines would reduce the period to 30 working days for Category A projects and seven working days for Category B projects.
IPRI said Indigenous decision-making may require discussions among villages, clans, elders, affected families, and customary institutions, particularly for projects involving rivers, dams, and energy development.
The group also questioned a provision that would deem a Certification Precondition approved if the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples regional director or Commission En Banc fails, without justifiable reason, to grant or deny it within 30 working days after submission of an FPIC report.
The provision does not create Indigenous consent by silence because it presupposes an FPIC report containing a signed memorandum of agreement reflecting community consent, according to the review.
IPRI said, however, that administrative inaction should not replace the government’s duty to verify that consent was genuinely free, prior and informed and reached according to customary law.
IPRI also raised concern over provisions allowing reconsideration within five days when a community withholds consent.
Its review said the provision could create an imbalance in which a “yes” allows a project to move forward while a “no” can reopen the process and expose the community to repeated efforts to change its decision.
IPRI cited experiences involving the Kaliwa-Kanan Dam, the Didipio mine, nickel mining in Brooke’s Point, the Gened hydropower projects in Apayao, and renewable energy developments affecting Ayta/Aeta communities and Indigenous Peoples in the Cordillera.
The group said the cases showed recurring concerns over inadequate information, pressure on community decision-making, failure to respect opposition, violence and attacks on defenders, and projects moving forward despite unresolved concerns.
It said stronger safeguards were particularly important as mining for transition minerals and renewable energy projects expand into Indigenous territories.
“Projects labelled ‘green’ or climate-friendly can still result in land loss, restrictions on customary resource use and other serious impacts. The energy transition must not create new forms of dispossession and injustice for Indigenous Peoples,” IPRI said.
The group said FPIC and Certification Precondition proceedings should be suspended when credible allegations of bribery, intimidation, manipulation, falsification or exclusion could affect the validity of consent, until the allegations are independently investigated and resolved.
IPRI urged the NCIP and the Philippine government to ensure the final guidelines strengthen existing FPIC protections and are fully consistent with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the 2026 U.N. Working Group guidance on FPIC and International Finance Corporation Performance Standard 7.
“FPIC is fundamentally an exercise of the right to self-determination, not a process to facilitate access to Indigenous Peoples’ lands and resources,” IPRI said.
“Indigenous Peoples themselves must determine, through their own institutions and customary laws, how decisions are made and the time needed to reach them. Their independent and collective decision—whether to give or withhold consent—must be respected,” it added.
