read this

The Philippine Supreme Court, in a 95 page ruling, nullified several
> provisions of the 1995 Philippine Mining Act that allowed 100% foreign
> ownership of mineral assets. These were called FTAA (Financial Technical
> Assistance Agreement).
> * The majority of the Court declared the FTAA as unconstitutional and
> void.
> * There has been only 2 FTAA ever granted to WMC and CMX.
> * LAF does not operate under an FTAA and operates on the MPSA system
> (60% Philippine owned, LAF 40%).
> * LAF believe that it will not result in any delay in the construction
> of the Rapu Rapu project.
We believe that the major risk is project delay rather than
> ownership/title concerns
> * The project fundamentals remain strong with our current valuation of
> $0.17/sh. The key issue remains the bank approval process which should be
> completed in Feb'04.
> * Whilst the stock will be volatile in the short term we believe the
> selling is overdone.

Also to add, having been through many eastern countries a lot of them have a 51% ownership rule going to the home nation, thailand is a classic, to go further than this is internal investment suicide, Laf will be fine, may be shaken for a while but I bought 30% cheaper than I have been tracking it at, I will take the risk.
Got this from my broker, and he did buy for me whilst I was at the Zoo with my son. You should have seen this croc, jeez