Tampakan project FTAA extended for six more years, or until 2038

A photo of the mining tenement of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. in the mountains of Tampakan, South Cotabato taken on 29 January 2025. SMI says that open-pit mining is the most viable method to extract the minerals. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO.

TAMPAKAN, South Cotabato (MindaNews / 19 February) – The Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) granted to the controversial Tampakan project, the largest undeveloped copper and gold minefield in Southeast Asia, was extended from 12 to 18 years – from 2032 to 2038, according to an amended order issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The 12-year extension – from 2020 to 2032 – was approved on June 8, 2016 by Leo Jasareno, then national director of the DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

Jasareno’s order cited as reasons for extension the cases filed against the FTAA; the provincial government of South Cotabato’s passing of an ordinance in 2010 banning open pit mining, the method that will be employed by the Tampakan project; and the issuance of CLOAs (Certificate of Land Ownership Awards) within the contract area “are determined to be acts beyond the reasonable control of SMI or Force Majeure.”

Force majeure, it said, is a “justifiable cause” for the extension of the FTAA.

The approval came 22 days before Benigno Simeon Aquino III stepped down as President and Duterte took over.

Like the first extension,  no announcement was made about the second.

The Diocese of Marbel learned about the second extension — March 22, 2032 to March 22, 2038 — only recently, after it filed a petition last October 4 asking a local court in Koronadal City to void the 12-year extension granted to the FTAA of Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), developer of the Tampakan project.

The FTAA, which has a life span of 25 years, was set to expire on March 22, 2020.

FTAA No. 002-95-XI was originally granted to Australian firm Western Mining Corp. (WMC) on March 22, 1995. SMI acquired the FTAA from WMC in 2001 with the approval of then Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez.

Shocked

MindaNews learned about the June 2016 decision to extend the FTAA from March 22, 2020 to March 22, 2032 during a sit-down interview with then MGB – Region 12 director Felizardo Gacad Jr. at his office in Koronadal City.

Marbel Bishop Cerilo Casicas told MindaNews on February 13 that they were shocked to learn that the Tampakan FTAA’s extension was amended from 12 to 18 years, or from 2032 to 2038.

Marbel Bishop Cerilo Casicas, D.D., stresses a point during a sit-down interview at the office of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Marbel on 13 February 2025. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO

“What’s amazing here is that it’s no longer extension. They changed the term extension into restoration,” Casicas said.

Sampulna’s June 2022 order was titled “Restoration of the Lost Term of the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement No. 02-95-XI-Amended granted to Sagittarius Mines, Inc.”

In seeking  another extension SMI cited, among others, peace and order problems, the open-pit ban imposed by the South Cotabato provincial government, DENR’s cancellation of its ECC on  February 14, 2017 (which the Office of the President restored on May 6, 2019) and the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

 “The above problems encountered by SMI … are determined to be acts beyond the reasonable control of SMI or force majeure covering for a total period of 18 years,” Sampulna’s order stated.

Sampulna’s June 2022 order said the June 2016 extension until 2032 “is hereby amended by restoring the lost term of FTAA No. 02-95-XI-Amended for a period of 18 years from the expiration of its first 25-year term … and such term shall now expire on March 22, 2038.”

“Wala gid mi kabalo ana ba” (We didn’t know about this), Casiscas told a MindaNews team at the office of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Marbel.

The Bishop noted that there are groups monitoring the DENR’s website for contracts, extensions and cancellations but “wala na sya mogawas didto” (that did not appear there).

He said they only learned about the 18-year extension “around December” after SMI responded to their court petition filed last October to void the 12-year extension.

The Bishop said both extensions lack transparency because they were not made public as soon as the orders were issued. It took four years before the public knew about the 2020 to 2032 extension and it took 2.5 years before the public learned about the 2032 to 2038 extension.

MindaNews sought Efren Carido, director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau – Region 12, for an interview on February 13 but was told that the DENR central office still needs to issue a clearance to face the media.

“Key driver”