Rebels warn of attacks vs dams in Sierra Madre

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—Communist rebels threatened to disrupt the construction of at least two controversial dam projects on the Sierra Madre mountain range, which tribal leaders and project critics said would lead to massive environmental damage and displacement of tribal communities.

Armando “Ka Mando” Jacinto, spokesperson of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) Rosemarie Lodronio Rosal Command operating in the Sierra Madre section of Southern Tagalog, said rebels would launch attacks to stop the projects.

The two dam projects—Kaliwa Dam and Laiban Dam—are under the P18.7-billion New Centennial Water Source projects of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.

The projects are designed to tap the Agos River on Sierra Madre to supply Metro Manila with potable water.

“The dam projects will be stopped and the ancestral lands of the Dumagat and Remontado tribe will be free from environmental destruction,” Jacinto said in the NPA statement.

According to Jacinto, soldiers are now based in several mountain villages in General Nakar and Tanay towns, Rizal province, to quell opposition against the dam projects.