To explain the difference between the two, let’s first start with treasure hunting. This is an activity where a group of several individuals are involve. Their primary goal is to recover large or hoard treasure deposits that when they are successful, it can change their lives to become wealthy individuals.
Treasure hunting requires a lot of work where the hunters usually have to dig several feet of depth under the ground. They are also willing to spend money while being aware that their operation could end up a failure.
The main reason why the Philippine Treasure Hunting Law applies to them is due to the way how they excavate their sites. Their excavation can actually pose some threat or danger especially to the residents nearby the area.
Now, when it comes to metal detecting. This is a different activity as compared to treasure hunting. Although, their goal is the same which is to uncover treasure buried under the ground but on a smaller scale.
Their primary targets are lost old coins, rings, jewelries, and other precious metals. And since they are lost items in the past, they are simply buried at shallow depths. So once the item got recovered, they can easily cover the hole that they dug.
Since metal detecting doesn’t do much damage to the environment, it is not required to acquire a permit to perform this activity in the Philippines.
