The 2025 Extractives Transparency Week (ETW) opened with renewed momentum toward more inclusive and accountable natural resource governance in the Philippines, as the Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PH-EITI) marked its second decade of promoting transparency, accountability and public participation in the mining, oil and gas sectors.
With the theme “Extracting Better Futures: Amplifying Stakeholder Voices Towards Inclusive Development,” this year’s ETW is highlighting the need to ensure that transparency efforts translate into equitable and sustainable outcomes. Stakeholders from across the country gathered in Manila to examine emerging challenges and opportunities in extractive governance, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and elevating community perspectives.
Day 1, held Nov. 25, featured the Industry Constituency’s parallel session, “Strengthening Accountability and Community Relations in a Changing Extractives Landscape,” at the Department of Finance. Representatives from the mining, oil and gas industries convened to discuss how global expectations and domestic realities are reshaping the responsibilities of industry players.
The session opened with a presentation from Katrina Francisco, partner at SGV & Co., who described today’s operating environment as “NAVI” — nonlinear, accelerated, volatile and interconnected. She outlined three major shifts affecting the sector: rising demand for reliable ESG information; the integration of climate, nature and just transition considerations into corporate strategy; and the rapid expansion of digital technologies for monitoring and transparency. Companies that can “integrate credible data, climate and nature action, and genuine community participation” will be best positioned to maintain their social license to operate, she said.
A panel discussion followed with Diory Carr of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Marjorie Idio of OceanaGold Philippines Inc., and Guillermo Ansay of the Department of Energy. The panelists underscored the need to harmonize ESG and community-relations frameworks across industries, strengthen capacity-building for companies and host communities, and ensure consistency between national and local regulations. Their insights pointed to the importance of institutional alignment and people-centered approaches to responsible extractives.
Breakout discussions allowed industry participants to examine practical challenges in sustaining trust and acceptance in host communities. Participants cited persistent misinformation, uneven access to technical information, and longstanding local grievances as barriers to maintaining a social license to operate. They also emphasized that transparency is meaningful only when information is accessible, timely and communicated in ways that communities can understand.
Across sessions, communication emerged as a recurring theme. Speakers and participants noted that credible and consistent information is essential for building trust, and that communication platforms must be used strategically to reach those who need the information most. Transparency, they stressed, requires more than compliance — it requires ensuring that communities feel informed, included and confident in their engagement with the sector.
As the session closed, participants emphasized that accountability and community relations are now central to determining the legitimacy and long-term viability of extractive operations. Discussions throughout the day pointed to the need for harmonized standards, stronger open-data systems, empowered communities, aligned policies and greater innovation. These efforts, many agreed, are necessary to create an extractive sector that supports inclusive development, advances the country’s clean-energy transition and upholds responsible stewardship of natural resources.
This year’s ETW was held alongside FORGE Philippines 2025: PH-EITI National Conference, bringing together government agencies, industry leaders, civil society organizations, Indigenous communities, partner institutions and representatives from the international EITI community.
Over four days, participants discussed a wide range of issues: beneficial ownership transparency and corporate accountability; industry priorities amid accelerating ESG standards; localizing transparency and empowering communities and local governments; national wealth sharing and fiscal coordination; Indigenous rights, FPIC, SDMPs and environmental disclosure; the energy and just transitions; the Philippines’ emerging role in critical mineral supply chains; and labor protections in the extractive sector.
Organizers described ETW as more than a conference — a convergence of stories, expertise, challenges and hopes. As one summary statement noted, “ETW is never just an event; it’s a convergence of stories, expertise, challenges, and hopes for a better extractives landscape.”
In closing, PH-EITI expressed gratitude to partners, speakers, panelists, members of the Multi-Stakeholder Group and participants for their contributions. The week’s events, it said, reflected a shared commitment to “forging stronger governance, deeper transparency, and more inclusive development for the communities who stand at the center of our natural resource story.”
