Board of Directors and Management

Mr. Sarmiento, a Philippine National and resident, admitted to the Philippine Bar and New York State Bar, has 30 years’ experience as a lawyer in mining, environment, social license, renewable energy, and government relations in the Philippines. He is a strong advocate for the sustainable development and social transformation of local communities, particularly of indigenous cultural communities in resource-dependent industries.

He has excellent relationship with the Balatoc indigenous cultural community as host community of the Makilala Mining Company for the Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog Project in Kalinga Province. He has excellent relationship with the BalatocIndigenous Cultural Community as host community of the Makilala Mining Company for the Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog Project in Kalinga Province. He also played a key role in the successful operations of several mining companies throughout the Philippines.

He led the acquisition by Glencore of the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining (PASAR) Corporation in Leyte Province, Visayas, where he subsequently served as Board Director, Vice President and General Counsel. He was Senior Partner and Head of Natural Resources, Environment and Social License Practice Group for 16 years of one of the leading law firms in the Philippines.

He was CEO, President, and co-Founder of WeGen Inc., a renewable distributed energy covering Southeast Asia. He is concurrently the Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Sarmiento Loriega (SL) Law Office and SL & Partners Consultancy Inc. Mr. Sarmiento holds a Master of Laws degree and Doctor of Jurisprudence (Cand.) as a World Bank Scholar from Yale Law School in New Haven,

Connecticut, an MBA (with highest honors) from a Joint Program of Ateneo School of Business and Colorado-based Regis University, a Bachelor of Arts degree, major in Pre-Divinity at the Ateneo de Manila University.

He underwent an eight-year formation for the priesthood in the Seminary where he developed very close relationship with the Church. Mr. Sarmiento is currently the President of Makilala Holdings companies, namely Makilala Mining Company, Inc. (MCB Copper- Gold Project), Tambuli Mining Company, Inc. (Sagay Copper-Gold Project), and PDEP, Inc.

Mr. Hume has over 40 years of substantial and practical experience on major mining and construction development projects on lead roles throughout Australia and internationally. This experience has greatly helped build his proven skills in general management, project management, construction management, dispute resolution, infrastructure, and process design. He has carried out operational assignments in mining, materials handling, processing, and infrastructure where he was responsible for a range of roles from concept planning to commissioning and operations with design management, development and implementation of quality, safety, and maintenance management systems.

These assignments have been demonstrated when he worked with companies such as Porgera Joint Venture, Xstrata Copper, Xstrata Coal, Anglo Coal, Glencore, Newmont Mining Corporation, BMA Coal, Kaltim Prima Coal, and Dyno Nobel, among others. While working with these companies, he had the opportunity to mentor young and dynamic professionals which has been a key driver in his career to ensure that knowledge, experience, and core values gained through the years is passed on.

Ms. Manero has worked with major Philippine public infrastructure, mining, and hydropower projects for more than 10 years managing diverse teams of local and international experts to carry out studies leading to the development of plans and programs in compliance with national regulatory requirements and international standards. She worked closely with environmental and engineering teams to ensure that social impacts are avoided or kept at a minimum while developing key project consultation and negotiation strategies to manage anticipated social, economic, and cultural impacts essential to obtaining a social license to operate.

She also has more than 10 years of development work with World Bank and EU-funded integrated rural development programs all over the Philippines. She holds a PhD in Rural Development and has an extensive working knowledge in stakeholder engagements, project risk management, project scheduling, community development, socio-cultural baseline studies, and social impact assessment, among others. She is one of the founders of Anleck Limited which set out to develop the Makilala project portfolio previously owned by Freeport-McMoRan tenements in the Philippines.

A Certified Public Accountant and a Lawyer, Mr. Cantre has more than a decade of practical experience in Tax Advisory and Advocacy, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Restructuring & Reorganization, Corporate Commercial Law, Project Finance, Energy Law, Estate Planning, Transfer Pricing and Data Privacy.

His career involved working with the biggest auditing and law firms in the Philippines such as the Punongbayan & Araullo (Grant Thornton), Sycip, Gorres,Velayo & Co., Ernst & Young, and Puno Law.

He is currently a Senior Partner in Sarmiento Loriega Law and serves a Co-Head of the firm’s Mergers and Acquisition, Tax, and Corporate Practice Groups and heads the firm’s Transfer Pricing and Data Privacy Law practice areas.

Mr. Salazar has over 30 years’ experience in corporate and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, real estate law, taxation, projects, mining, energy, and natural resources law. As a Senior Partner at Fortun, Narvasa & Salazar Law, he advises corporate clients in all aspects of corporate law and acts as director and corporate secretary, and resident agent of various companies.

He also counsels on incorporation and registration of corporate entities, corporate compliance and governance issues, corporate reorganization, and availment of incentives. He likewise represents foreign and Filipino mining companies involved in all aspects of mining from exploration, project financing, construction, development, and processing.

His existing foreign and domestic mining clients range from operating companies to exploration entities. Mr. Salazar was recently included in the Asia Business Law Journal list of top 100 lawyers in the Philippines. He was also listed in the 2018 edition and in past editions of the international Who’s Who of Mining Lawyers for the Philippines. He was ranked as a leading lawyer in natural resources and mining by Chambers Global 2018 and prior years and is highly recommended as a leading lawyer in projects, energy, and natural resources by Chambers Asia-Pacific 2018. He was inducted in the inaugural Legal 500 Asia Pacific Hall of Fame in 2020.

Jane is a licensed Mining Engineer with over eight years of combined experience in various lead roles in government and private sectors of the mining industry in ensuring that projects are managed and implemented in a safe,

 environmentally sound, and cost-effective manner. These experiences enabled her to hone her skills in mine planning, contracts management, risk assessment and management, monitoring and evaluation, project scheduling, and budgeting.

She is also instrumental to the development of Mining Project Feasibility Studies for Makilala Mining’s Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog (MCB) Project in Kalinga and Sagittarius Mine’s Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in South Cotabato.