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NEWS FEATURE
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As the Dumagats continue their fight against the Kaliwa Dam project, the Quezon provincial government has also moved against the dam. B Y A R O N J A N M I T C H E L L S I E R VA
UPLB Perspective Reporter
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n October 28, SectorS and Peoples Totally Opposed to Kaliwa Dam (STOP Kaliwa Dam) reported that a leader of the indigenous people Dumagat Remontado was not invited in a meeting regarding the Kaliwa Dam’s Memorandum Of Agreement (MOA). The meeting was to be done with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), and was reported to have been organized despite lacking free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), which would allow IPs such as the Dumagat Remontado to voice their insights on decisions that would affect their communities. “Ang negosasyon ay nagaganap habang patuloy ang kakulangan ng tugon sa mga anomalya sa free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) process na minadali ng MWSS,” STOP Kaliwa Dam wrote in a Facebook post. This was the latest attack in an already lengthy battle between the indigenous community and the powers that be over ancestral lands and environmental welfare. A part of the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program, the Kaliwa Dam project is a new water source to be constructed within the provinces of Rizal and Quezon, facilitated by the MWSS. In a loan agreement signed by then MWSS Administrator Reynaldo Velasco last November 20, 2018, the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIMBANK) agreed to lend about P10.4 billion to the Philippine government in order to finance the construction of the said dam.The deal was sealed despite major protests by environmental advocates, activists, and the natives of Sierra Madre. The project is being primarily condemned by the Dumagats, an indigenous tribe that has claims to the area in which the dam is to be constructed. In addition to the project’s environmental risks, the Kaliwa Dam construction also violates the supposed sacredness of the Sierra Madre, as expressed by the Dumagats. The indigenous tribe believes that “Makidyapat”, their supreme creator, granted the natural resources equally to all people. They stressed that land must be held sacred and must not be used for economic means. “They are not only taking our lands, they are also taking our lives,” said by the spokesperson of AGTA, a Dumagat organization.
Decades of opposition
Ideas for the project can be traced back to 1979, during the presidency of the late Ferdinand Marcos. Formerly called the Laiban Dam, its proposed structure was bigger in size compared to the current administration’s plan for the Kaliwa Dam project. The Dumagats have been fighting for their ancestral rights since then. Their persistence to assert their claims had halted the construction of the Laiban Dam during Marcos’s office. Among those who fought valiantly for the indigenous tribe was Nicanor delos Santos. He became a spokesperson for the Kaisahan ng mga Katutubo sa Sierra Madre (KKSM), and
[P] PHOTO BY CYRIL CHAN
Defending Makidyapat’s land against Kaliwa Dam Hindi kami against sa kaunlaran, pero dapat ang gagawing pagbabago ay ‘di rin makakaapekto sa karamihan. LODEMA DOROTEO
Dumagat teacher
served as the secretary general of Makabayang Samahan ng mga Dumagat (MASKADA). “[Delos Santos] never showed any weakening of his will to fight,” recounted Kakay Tolentino, a Dumagat activist. She added that delos Santos continued to organize the community despite militarization threats. On December 8, 2001, delos Santos was gunned down by a government soldier. At the time he was killed, he was merely buying food for his tribe as preparation for a Human Rights Day protest. The Dumagats honor de los Santos as a martyr, who wholeheartedly served and died for his fellow indigenous people. In 2007, talks about the Laiban Dam resurfaced. Detailed researches were conducted
concerning the dam’s proposed structural design. In 2009, the San Miguel Corporation (SMC), recently linked to land-grabbing cases in Bulacan and Quezon, submitted an unsolicited proposal to build the dam. The MWSS was criticized for not publicizing the biddings, and as a result of the protests, SMC refused to sign the contract. Then in 2018, despite the people’s continuous campaigns against the dam construction, the Duterte administration advanced the deal with Chinese investors. Several organizations expressed their support for the Dumagats in opposing the construction of the Kaliwa Dam. These include scientific and environmental groups such as the Haribon Foundation, Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM), Samahan ng mga Konsyumer para sa Ikauunlad ng Bayan (SUKI), among many others. These groups asserted in an October 6 Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples' Rights (TFIP) Facebook live that the natives, poor, and marginalized sectors must be prioritized in the allocation of water resources. They condemn the government’s act of displacing and harassing the indigenous people of the Sierra Madre. Religious institutions, such as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), also expressed their opposition towards the dam construction.
Regardless, the government asserted that building the dam would be beneficial to all people living within and around the area.
Massive mistakes
An article by MWSS stated that the Kaliwa Dam seeks to meet the increasing water demand of the residents. It is set to provide 2,400 million liters of water per day (MLD). This aims to answer the serious water shortage in Metro Manila, which takes its supply from the Angat and Ipo Dams. Both water sources were reported to have falling water levels in the past years. However, the government overlooks the detrimental consequences of the dam construction on the environment itself, among several negative effects on other societal aspects. Constructing the Kaliwa Dam can lead to deforestation, biodiversity loss, loss of food source, decreased rainfall, flooding, and landslide, according to AGHAM. A report by Manila Bulletin showed that building the Kaliwa Dam would submerge about 12,000 hectares of the forest ecosystems in Sierra Madre, with 172 plant species, 17 of which are facing endangerment or extinction. In addition, Haribon Foundation calculated that the Kaliwa Dam project could destroy the habitat of at least three critically-endangered species, 31 endangered species, and 240 vulnerable species.As a matter of fact, the Kaliwa
