Macli-ing monument in Kalinga ‘desecrated,’ says group

BAGUIO CITY—A section of the monument dedicated to leaders of the struggle to stop the construction of Chico Dam more than 40 years ago in Kalinga province has been torn down, an official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Tuesday.

Teodoro Owek, assistant engineer of DPWH upper Kalinga district engineering office, said the steel panels of the portraits of Macli-ing Dulag, Pedro Dungoc and Lumbaya Gayudan in Tinglayan town had already been removed.

People’s heroes

The three men were among the leaders in the fight of the Kalinga and Mountain Province communities against the Chico River Dam project during the regime of strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Macli-ing, the most prominent face of the Chico Dam struggle, was shot and killed by a soldier in his house in 1980.

According to the militant Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), the monument in Barangay Bugnay was “desecrated” on Jan. 1. CPA raised the money to put up the monument from 2000 to 2017.

In a statement on Wednesday, CPA said three pickup trucks ferried policemen to the site of the monument and took down the panels.

The group said a resolution from Bugnay officials condemned the removal of the monument panels and claimed policemen were behind it.

“[The vandalism] is an affront to the heroism that Dulag, Gayudan, Dungoc and other Chico Dam veterans portrayed in defending our homeland from plunder,” CPA said.

Police Col. Davy Vicente Limmong, Kalinga police director, said he asked the Tinglayan town police to investigate the incident.

In October last year, the Kalinga police advisory council had sought the removal of the monument, saying the historical marker encroached on the national highway. —KIMBERLIE QUITASOL