The extractive insecurity paradox: a human security diagnosis of the Philippine mining sector

• Introduces and theorizes the “Extractive Insecurity Paradox” as a core contradiction of liberalized mining regimes. • Diagnoses how mining in the Philippines generates cascading vulnerabilities across all seven human security dimensions. • Argues that human insecurity is a structural outcome, not a mere failure of policy implementation. • Proposes a human security-centered governance paradigm to dismantle the paradox. • Outlines three concrete policy pillars: a mandatory Human Security Impact Assessment, Post-Extractive Trust Funds, and empowered Free Prior Informed Consent. The Philippine mining sector exemplifies a persistent paradox: significant mineral wealth coexists with profound human insecurity in host communities. This paper moves beyond resource curse and governance gap narratives to introduce and theorize the Extractive Insecurity Paradox—the systematic process whereby the pursuit of state and corporate security through mineral extraction actively dismantles human security at the local level. Employing the 1994 UNDP human security framework as a diagnostic tool, we conduct a multi-dimensional analysis of the Philippine mining regime, revealing how vulnerabilities cascade across economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political domains. Our analysis demonstrates that these insecurities are not policy failures but the logical outputs of a structure defined by a liberalized policy architecture, an enclave economy, and coercive governance. The paper argues that overcoming this paradox requires a foundational paradigm shift. We thus propose a human security-centered governance framework, built on three pillars: a mandatory Human Security Impact Assessment (HSIA) as a binding license to operate; Post-Extractive Community Trust Funds to transform rents into lasting resilience and sustainable development; and the substantive empowerment of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). By synthesizing diagnostic analysis with a prescriptive model, this paper offers a critical conceptual advancement for understanding and reforming extractive industries in the Philippines and other resource frontiers globally.