LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines — The mayor of Infanta town in Quezon province on Wednesday drew the line over the local police’s online promotion of the Kaliwa Dam in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges despite mounting opposition to its construction.
The Infanta police posted photo collages promoting the dam’s construction on their Facebook page, Infanta Pulis Quezon PPO, on May 26 and June 3. The posts carried the hashtags #promotepeace and #supportourgovernment.
“Promoting peace and favoring the dam construction project are two different things,” Mayor Filipina Grace America told the Inquirer.
The local government fiercely opposes the project.
Respective mandates
While acknowledging that local government and the police have different mandates, America said she would meet with the police officials to discuss the posts.
The construction of the P18.7-billion Kaliwa Dam is a major component of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s project to solve the water crisis in Metro Manila.
The project entails the construction of a dam on Kaliwa River (Laiban Dam) and a smaller dam (Kaliwa Dam) downstream.
The project would submerge parts of Tanay town in Rizal province and General Nakar and Infanta towns in Quezon, and pose risks to 100,000 people living downstream, critics said.
Lacks tribe’s consent
More important, it lacks “free prior and informed consent” from the Dumagat-Remontado, an ethnic community occupying land within the Kaliwa river basin, they said.
“We need an acceptable reason why you promote establishing [the] Kaliwa Dam … You are law enforcers assigned in Infanta, you should protect the people of Infanta and not those from Manila,” a resident, Cecille Francia Perez, said in a comment on the police posts on Facebook.
Oscar Bernardo Catilo, an environmentalist, scored the police for disregarding possible violation of environmental laws arising from the dam construction.
“Laws are enacted as an instrument in the promotion of peace and order, especially when they are observed and enforced,” Catilo said.