The Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PH-EITI) and the Philippine Tax Academy (PTA) have formalized a three-year partnership to advance transparency, accountability and fiscal literacy in the country’s extractive industries.
Through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on 5 August at the Diamond Hotel in Manila, the two institutions committed to building the capacity of government agencies, civil society and local communities to better understand extractive revenues and strengthen public financial governance.
PH-EITI is the Philippine government’s multi-stakeholder body tasked with implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global standard that promotes open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources. The EITI requires member countries to disclose information along the extractive industry value chain—from contracts and licenses to production, revenue collection and public spending.
The Philippines joined the EITI in 2013 and was the first country in Asia to achieve meaningful progress in implementing the standard. PH-EITI is housed under the Department of Finance and works closely with stakeholders from government, industry and civil society.
The PTA, established through Republic Act No. 10143, serves as the training arm of the government for tax collectors and administrators from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF). Its core mandate is to develop a corps of professionally trained and ethically grounded tax and customs officials, as well as to enhance fiscal policy implementation.
The partnership with PH-EITI broadens PTA’s scope to include capacity building for extractive sector governance. The two institutions will collaborate on the design and delivery of training modules, workshops and knowledge-sharing initiatives tailored to the unique challenges of resource-rich localities.
The signing ceremony brought together stakeholders from across the PH-EITI community, marking the start of a strategic learning partnership aimed at improving fiscal transparency in the mining, oil and gas sectors.
