Fight vs dam revived after Aquino OK of spending plan

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—The approval by President Aquino of a massive infrastructure spending plan that includes the construction of a dam in Sierra Madre is fueling the revival of protests against the dam project from a tribal group and people who stand to lose their homes when the project pushes through.

Elizabeth C. Carranza, chair of the group Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance (Sara), said the project’s cost would be too high in terms of its impact on the environment and the lives of people in communities that would be uprooted by the project.

Carranza, in a statement, said thousands of hectares of watersheds in Sierra Madre, considered as Luzon’s last forest frontier, would be lost.

“We have already lost a vast area of our watersheds and forests (to logging and land conversion),” she said.

In an ambitious plan to spur economic growth following a slowdown because of Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” Mr. Aquino approved a multibillion peso infrastructure spending binge that includes the construction of the P18.7-billion Kaliwa Dam in the mountain village of Pagsanghan in General Nakar, Quezon province.

The area is in Sierra Madre.