Stop 2 Sierra Madre dam projects, Agta folk appeal

INDIGENOUS peoples from Rizal and Quezon provinces, in a rally at Mendiola on Friday, slam the Aquino administration for resurrecting the Laiban dam project that is supposed to supply water to Metro Manila but would instead displace thousands of the Dumagat and the Remontado in seven villages in Rizal and northern Quezon. JOAN BONDOC

LUCENA CITY—As the Catholic Church commemorated Indigenous Peoples’ Sunday, the Agta tribe called on the Filipino people to join their opposition against two dam projects—Kaliwa and Laiban—on Sierra Madre.

The dam projects would tap water from Agos River on Sierra Madre to supply Metro Manila with potable water.

President Aquino, in his State of the Nation Address in July, said the dam projects on Sierra Madre were among several public-private partnership programs he had approved for immediate implementation.

“With the deepening silence of Congress and Senate against the threat of dam projects on Sierra Madre, only the people’s vigilance, with the support of the media, can stop the destruction of our ancestral domain,” Ramcy Astoveza, chieftain of the Agta tribe based in northern Quezon province, said in a phone interview.

The P18.7-billion New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project (NCWS-KDP) of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) had no free prior and informed consent (FPIC) from their tribe, as mandated under Republic Act No. 8371, or the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Ipra) of 1997, Astoveza said.

FPIC is a means adopted in the Ipra to protect the rights and interest of indigenous peoples.

Astoveza vowed that they would not give the FPIC for the dam project. “Once we give the FPIC, we will only seal the death of our tribe,” he said.

Last week, the MWSS, a government-owned and -controlled corporation, had invited prospective bidders for the Kaliwa dam project.

Elizabeth Carranza, head of Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance Inc. (SSMNAI) that is opposed to the project, said the dam would threaten the remaining prime forests on Sierra Madre and its biodiversity, and deprive future generations of a healthy and balanced ecology.

“We don’t need new dams; they are not the ones supplying water to us. We need to restore the true source of clean water and clean air. We need to restore our forests,” she said.

The proposed Kaliwa dam, a 62-meter-high concrete-face, rock-filled dam (CFRD) with a capacity of 600 million liters per day (MLD), will be constructed in Kaliwa River in the mountain village of Pagsangahan in General Nakar town, Quezon.

SSMNAI said the dam would flood a watershed area of 9,700 hectares and affect about 1,465 families.

The government is also pushing for the construction of the Laiban dam, a 113-meter-high CFRD with a capacity of 1,800 MLD.

The Laiban dam, which is also a component of the NCWS project, is planned to be constructed in upper Kaliwa River in Barangay (village) Laiban, Tanay town, Rizal province.

The project would inundate 28,000 ha of watershed and affect about 3,708 families, according to SSMNAI.

The Laiban dam project is a joint-venture of San Miguel Corp. and the MWSS. It also aims to divert water from the mountain river system to augment the critical potable water supply of Metro Manila.

It was shelved in 2010 amid strong opposition from indigenous Sierra Madre communities.

The opposition groups also cited the risk posed by the dam projects, as their proposed site lies between the Marikina and Real-Infanta fault lines.

If the dam breaks because of earthquakes, a repeat of the destructive floods in 2004 in northern Quezon could result in unimaginable catastrophe, according to dam critics.