Roundup:
This week's loudest story surfaced at a forum in UP Diliman called "Plundered, Not Poor," where Mattie Balagat of the Center for Environmental Concerns told the room: "Four years into the Marcos Jr. administration, the verdict of the environmental movement is definitive: it is a failure. We see no genuine climate action—only the worsening commercialization of our patrimony." Perfectly timed, days before Marcos's fourth State of the Nation Address. Right before the President tells the country how well things are going.
[Mainstream] BusinessWorld ◦ [Research & Data] Center for Environmental Concerns
The Philippine Institute for Development Studies — the government's own think tank — put it bluntly this week too: "The short answer to how energy secure is the Philippines—we are insecure." We import nearly all our oil, mostly from a Middle East currently at war, and diesel jumped another ₱2.62 to ₱4.62 per liter on July 14, with a possible ₱10-per-liter hike looming for the week of July 20. For a fisherman burning diesel just to reach the fishing grounds, that's one more cost stacked on top of an ocean that's already being taken from faster than it can refill.
[Mainstream] Manila Bulletin / Rappler / Manila Bulletin ◦ [Research & Data] PIDS
In Mankayan, Benguet, a Regional Trial Court judge issued a 72-hour restraining order on July 9 ordering Ibaloi and Kankanaey residents of Bulalacao and Guinaoang to stop physically blocking Crescent Mining and Development Corporation's drilling equipment. The mining company, CMDC, said the order "addresses only the physical blocking of lawful, permitted operations" and insists the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples properly certified their consent. The residents' group, calling itself the No Mines Movement of Guinaoang and Bulalacao, called the lawsuit a "strategic lawsuit against public participation" and says that certification never reflected genuine community agreement. A court sided, for now, with the company.
[Mainstream] Inquirer / Tribune ◦ [Research & Data] North Luzon Monitor
Out in Palawan, Malampaya — the country's biggest domestic gas field — came back online after a month-long maintenance shutdown. Prime Energy confirmed gas deliveries resumed at 12:01 a.m. on July 15, and the downtime was used to prep two new wells, Malampaya East-1 and Camago-3, under the Phase 4 expansion. The target is first gas by year-end, stretching the field's life by up to six years. The Department of Energy's answer to energy insecurity, apparently, is more gas — for longer.
[Mainstream] Tribune ◦ [Research & Data] Prime Energy
On the mining side, MGB — the government office that tracks mining permits and production — reported metallic mineral output value up 28.6% year-on-year in the first quarter, hitting ₱82.78 billion, with gold making up 65% of that value even as gold production volume actually fell. A few days later, on the evening of July 16, police working with DENR's local office and MGB raided an illegal mining site in Barangay Awa, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, seizing about ₱9.5 million worth of equipment. Enforcement clearly works when it's aimed at a small, unpermitted operator — the same speed rarely shows up when a large, permitted mine breaks the rules.
[Mainstream] GMA Regional TV / Philippine Star ◦ [Research & Data] MGB / Philippine Resources Journal
Why this matters to us:
Diesel keeps climbing because we built our energy system on oil from a region at war, and Malampaya's expansion keeps that same fossil dependence alive for another six years.
In Mankayan, Benguet, residents receiving the restraining order addressing "only the physical blocking of lawful, permitted operations" is the same fight we saw last week, deeper into the same outcome.
And this week, MGB reported mineral production revenue up 28.6 percent, while a raid in Agusan del Sur proved that enforcement can move fast when a mine is small and unpermitted — but not when it's the kind of large, permitted operation still active in places like Mankayan.
Whoever benefits from ₱82.78 billion in mineral output and six more years of gas is not the fisherman paying ₱4.62 more per liter of diesel this week. Neither is it the Ibaloi elder in Bulalacao whose water source is now within reach of drilling equipment a court says the company can lawfully deploy.
The costs of these decisions are landing in places that never see a cent of that profit. Start tracking whose name is on the permit and whose water is downstream of it, week after week, and you’ll unearth a pattern you can’t unsee.
