Development, Power, and Identity Politics in the Philippines

Abstract

In recent years, the Philippine state has implemented legislative reforms intended to make it more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of its citizens. The national government attempted to decentralize authority through the enactment of the Local Government Code, a law that devolved state authority from the central to the local government units. In 1997, it also ratified the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), lauded as landmark legislation because it is supposed to respect and uphold the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral land and domain. Yet along with enacting these laws, the Philippine government has also implemented legal instruments that support forms of economic globalization (specifically, liberalization, deregulation, and privatization). Among these legal mechanisms, the Mining Act of 1995 — which the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) forcefully set in motion through World Bank-funded policy studies and policy dialogues — is of greatest concern here. The Mining Act liberalized the mining industry in the Philippines. A large portion of the areas targeted for mining is claimed as the ancestral lands or domains of indigenous peoples.