DFA facilitates National Conversation on Deep Seabed Mining

DFA-MOAO Assistant Secretary Maria Angela A. Ponce (rightmost) delivers her opening remarks.  (DFA-OPCD courtesy of Jeffrey Mendoza)

PASAY 23 December 2022 — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Maritime and Ocean Affairs Office (MOAO) conducted a consultation with technical experts and stakeholders on Deep Seabed Mining to facilitate the development of a national position on deep seabed mining on 16 December 2022 at the Bulwagang Elpidio Quirino, DFA Building, Roxas Blvd, Pasay City.

In her opening remarks, DFA Assistant Secretary for Maritime and Ocean Affairs Maria Angela A. Ponce urged the participants to keep in mind that the Philippines must consider the economic benefits of deep seabed mining with due regard to the obligation to conserve and protect the marine environment and reminded them of the primacy of UNCLOS in all activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The international seabed ‘Area’ and its mineral resources are the common heritage of mankind and must be administered for the benefit of humankind as a whole, by the International Seabed Authority. As a state party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Philippines can participate in deep seabed mining activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction, subject to the approval of the ISA. However, the Philippines has not clarified policy and legislative directions on the deep seabed, and such policies and directions must be grounded in sound scientific, objective, and technical advice. 

The consultations were held to facilitate that important conversation and bring together stakeholders that can help design programs and incubate policies in pursuit of common development objectives towards national legislation on the deep seabed.

Resource speakers during the consultations included: Atty. Neil Silva of the University of the Philippines (U.P.) Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea; Principal Assistant Kirstoff Gail D. Ocampo of the DFA-MOAO and Philippine focal point for the International Seabed Authority (ISA); Atty. Eloisa Katrina Madamba of the DFA Office of Treaties and Legal Affairs; First Secretary and Legal Adviser Azela Arumpac-Marte of the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York; Professor Dr. Mario Juan A. Aurelio of the U.P. National Institute of Geological Sciences and member of the ISA Legal and Technical Commission; Dr. Rogel Santos of the Marine Geological Survey Division of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau; Ms. Decibel Faustino-Eslava of the Geological Society of the Philippines; and Legal Officer Ms. Lea Kolmos Weis of the ISA.

Various stakeholders from the government, and the private sector participated in the consultations. The resource speakers shared their expertise and experience on topics, such as the ISA and Developments on Deep Seabed Mining, the ISA Mining Code, Philippine policies on Deep Seabed Mining, and Capacity Development, in order to help the participants to have a clearer understanding on the national and international framework and legal regime governing deep seabed mining, as well as the practical considerations for such activities.

The consultations will serve as a preparatory activity for the series of workshops on deep seabed mining to be held, in cooperation with the International Seabed Authority, in the 2nd and 4th quarters of 2023. DFA-MOAO intends to facilitate this process, in line with PH advocacy on the full and meaningful utilization of UNCLOS as the constitution of the oceans, from a global, regional and national perspective. END