In 1997, environmentalist groups filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking the declaration of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and the grant of Financial or Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA) as unconstitutional. All in all, it took the High Court seven years to come up with the ruling in favor of the petition. Box 2 on page 12-B gives a synopsis of the pertinent issues.

The petitioners contended then (and continue to do so now), that the Constitution does not contemplate FTAA as a mineral agreement, or a contract for the exploitation of minerals. The Charter prescribes, as they looked at it then (and still do so today), that the participation of foreign-owned corporations should be to assist technically or financially any venture to exploit the country’s mineral wealth. Nowhere in this provision does the Charter allow foreign firms to actually control, manage or engage in full mining operations, the petitioners argued then (and still do so now).