TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1993 Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) covering

2,835.06 hectares of land located in Brooke’s Point,
Philippines and Celestial Mining Palawan, with INC as the designated mining operator.
The original MPSA had a term of 25 years.
entered MPSA
Section 16. Opening of Ancestral Lands for Mining
Operations 1995
No ancestral land shall be opened for mining-operations RA 7942 Philippine Mining Act
without prior consent of the indigenous cultural community
concerned.

1997 IPRA both require the ICCs/IPs prior consent for mining
operations in ancestral lands.
RA 8371 Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act

In a letter dated March 31, 2006, former Ancestral Domains

Office (ADO) Director Myrna Caoagas said that INC (which 2006
took over Celestial Nickel Mining Exploration Corp.’s [CNMEC]
2006 Caoagas Memorandum
mine concession) is exempted from securing a CP because
the MPSA was awarded to CNMEC on Aug. 5, 1993, more
than three years prior to the effectivity of the IPRA in
November 1997.

2009 By virtue of Presidential Proclamation 1815 signed on

June 23, 2009, Mount Mantalingahan Protected
Proclamation of MMPL as a protected Area Landscape was proclaimed a protected area.

DENR Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez that its Environmental

Compliance Certificate (ECC) expired in October 2015, INC 2015
and Celestial nevertheless continued with their tree-cutting Expiration of INC’s Environmental Compliance
activities which the ICCs claim have caused the
deforestation of Mt. Mantalingahan. Certificate

2018 Supposedly the expiration year of

Ipilan’s MPSA.
After INC failed to secure a Certificate Precondition from
Failure to secure Certificate Precondition the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for
from NCIP the renewal of the MPSA, INC still continued with its mining
operations.

DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu issued an order reckoning the

effectivity date of the MPSA to the year it was amended in 2020
2000, and not the year it was originally executed in 1993. Extension of MPSA to year
The order, in effect, extended the MPSA until April 10, 2025.
2025

2022 DENR Community Environment and Natural Resources

Office issued a cease-and-desist order directing INC to
DENR issued a Cease-and-Desist Order halt its port construction for the lack of a valid
Miscellaneous Lease Agreement approved by the DENR
to INC MIMAROPA Regional Office.

On June 20, 2023, the NCIP ordered the suspension and

deferral of the free and prior informed consent process of
INC and Celestial Mining due to complaints from the ICCs
2023 JUNE
and reports of bribery by INC to elicit support from IPs.
NCIP ordered the suspension and deferral of
All these prompted the filing by the ICCs before the the FCIP of INC and Celestial Mining
Supreme Court of the present petition for the issuance of
writ of kalikasan

AUGUST 2023
In an order dated August 11, NCIP Mimaropa Regional
NCIP issued a Cease-and-Desist Order to INC Director Marie Grace Pascua ordered Celestial Nickel
Mining Corp. and its operator, Ipilan Nickel Corp., to
immediately cease and desist from mining..

Supreme Court issued a “Writ of Kalikasan” On August 15, 2023, the Supreme Court issued a Writ of
Kalikasan against Celestial Nickel Mining and Exploration
Corporation, Ipilan Nickel Corporation, and the DENR.