Philippine Treasure Hunting Laws

: Michael-Robert.

Bronze Member
Feb 2, 2013
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PHILIPPINES

In the Philippines the GUIDELINES ON TREASURE HUNTING IN THE PHILIPPINES were previously issued by The Office of the President (Malacanang) but since 2004 became Administrative Order No. 2004-33 and is issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with address as follows:
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Visayas Avenue, Diliman
Quezon City

Guidelines In Brief as follows:

APPLICATION FEE:
PhP 10,000.00 (approx. $200 USD).

SHARING AGREEMENT:
After an audited report of expenses has been evaluated and approved by the Oversight Committee, the sharing of the net proceeds shall be as follows;

a) For Treasure Hunting within Public Lands - Seventy five (75) percent to the Government and twenty five (25) percent to the Permit Holder.

b) For Treasure Hunting in Private Lands - Thirty (30) percent to the Government and seventy (70) percent (70) percent to be shared by the Permit Holder and the Landowner.

c) For Shipwrecks/Sunken Vessel Recovery - Fifty (50) percent to the Government and fifty (50) to the Permit Holder.

LICENSING PROCEDURE:
Treasure Hunting/Survey/Salvage Permit - Officially you can receive this within 30 working days after all documentation is evaluated and approved by the Technical Review Committee.

Upon discovery of valuable items the National Museum shall be called upon to determine whether or not they are considered to have cultural and/or historical value.

All treasures found shall be allowed for export only upon approval of the National Heritage Commission and other concerned Government agencies.

SURVEY/SALVAGE AREA:
SEA SITES: The area given for SEA sites is twenty (20) hectares. Once you have the permit that means no one can work within your licensed area.

PHILIPPINE PARTNER COMPANY:
As with most SEA countries, no foreign company can work in the Philippines without having a written Joint-Venture Agreement with a local Philippine Partner/Company. All licenses issued in the Philippines are issued in the name of the local company. All documentation is in English.

FOREIGNERS:
All foreigners who want to work at the site and actually participate in offshore operations MUST also apply for their Work/Business Visas. This process takes about one week (yes, since they actually take your passport you must be physically there in the Philippines during this process).
 

Interesting ! Everyone wants their share :laughing7:

welcome to treasureNet Embrym :thumbsup:
 

Embrym, I've read through your info, and don't see anything there about the value-cutoff of what's considered a "treasure". For example: if someone's detecting for individual solo coins (fumble fingers losses) as opposed to caches-type things, then is that "exempt"? And if he find a solo object worth a lot of money (say, a nice diamond ring on a tourist beach), does that qualify as a "treasure"? Is there a certain value, or size-of-object threshold, at which triggers the object to become a "treasure"?

Or if I'm hunting individual coins, yet find a tobacco-tin filled with 30 coins from the 1800's, does that then become a "treasure" (as opposed to if I'd found the 30 coins separately).

I guess what I'm saying is .... how is the term "treasure" defined here?
 

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It would be a pretty expensive permit for coin shooting. Is it a site permit, general type anywhere permit, yearly permit?
 

Hello there ,
Thanks for your information , so some one can bring detectors in Philippines by air plane and then
could apply for a permit ?

You do treasure hunting using detectors ?

Hope to hear from you soon .
 

hello
i have a house in the philippines, and will be going back over in april or may
i will try to get all the info i can find on this for everyone, and post it here.
 

Coin hunting with MD is not TREASURE HUNTING! Read via Google the history of the Golden Lily Treasure and/or Yamashita;s Treasure. You will be TRULY amazed.
 

Coin hunting with MD is not TREASURE HUNTING!

tell that to the people who are able to Buy a new House, Car, or even retire on the coins they find
 

tell that to the people who are able to Buy a new House, Car, or even retire on the coins they find

Jeff - as a high poster i thought you might have read the topic and the responses on my post. this topic is about Philippine Treasure Hunting laws NOT Metal Detecting Laws. There are no MD laws here. And..... My latest response here is to the post below my posts.
 

Do you have any other answers for our posted questions?
 

To all - NO PERMIT NEEDED FOR METAL DETECTING! Only for locating buried treasure. Any kind of buried treasure. Permit is good for site locations anywhere in the Philippines. Good for 90 however can be extended another 90 days at a time. I will post more specifics later for those looking to located treasure. Here are two examples of known treasure still to be found: 1) Golden Lily Treasure 2) Yamashita's Treasure.
 

Great! How about the points that Tom brought up about the definition of "treasure"?
 

Jeff - as a high poster i thought you might have read the topic and the responses on my post. this topic is about Philippine Treasure Hunting laws NOT Metal Detecting Laws. There are no MD laws here. And..... My latest response here is to the post below my posts.

I don't wish to argue with you, however I wasn't responding to The topic, I was responding to This Response

Coin hunting with MD is not TREASURE HUNTING! Read via Google the history of the Golden Lily Treasure and/or Yamashita;s Treasure. You will be TRULY amazed.

By you I must add :laughing7: & since it was by you, it Is On topic.

and I stand by my Comment Coin hunting with a MD is TREASURE HUNTING!
I do it regularly :thumbsup:
 

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hello po,baguhan lang ako deto gusto ko sana humingi ng tulong f san po pwede makabili ng murang gold detector .salamat
 

hello po,baguhan lang ako deto gusto ko sana humingi ng tulong f san po pwede makabili ng murang gold detector .salamat

First, welcome to TNET. Second, you are going to get a lot more help if ask your question in English. third, you will get more help if you start your own thread instead of asking on someone elses thread that is 5 years old.
 

First, welcome to TNET. Second, you are going to get a lot more help if ask your question in English. third, you will get more help if you start your own thread instead of asking on someone elses thread that is 5 years old.

:icon_thumleft:


hello po,baguhan lang ako deto gusto ko sana humingi ng tulong f san po pwede makabili ng murang gold detector .salamat
Looks Like :

hello, I'm just a beginner I would like to ask for help on where I can buy a cheap gold detector. thanks
 

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Would depend on what type gold objects. Eg.: nuggets in natural form ? gold rings and coins ? Gold in large caches ?

Also , this question does not seem to be one that involves legal issues. It's a general md'ing topic that would get more inputs put on the regular md'ing page.
 

the law quoted by embrym is outdated. it means if you follow those laws, you will be totally wrong as you will be following the law that is already repealed.
 

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