House panel wants to stop Kaliwa Dam construction pending IP consent
MANILA, Philippines — A House of Representatives panel agreed to issue a resolution urging the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System to stop the construction of the Kaliwa Dam project until the Free, Prior and Informed Consent process is finalized.
In a hearing Tuesday, the House Committee on Indigenous Cultural Communities and Indigenous People resolved to issue a resolution to cease and desist any activities in the ancestral domains of Dumagat communities affected by the P12.2- billion dam project.
Josefina Agusti, regional hearing officer of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Calabarzon, told House lawmakers the FPIC process is not yet completed.
The certification is one of the requirements needed by the MWSS to proceed with the construction of the water reservoir that will affect communities in Quezon and Rizal.
“It follows that no ongoing projects or programs within the ancestral domain shall be commenced pending the FPIC,” Agusti said.
“Considering there is no consummated, completed signed FPIC process, it goes to show that the project cannot continue. Contrary to what was already presented in this hearing, there are already several activities being conducted in the areas where the Dumagats are,” Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna) said.
Work on project site
Jojo Dorado, the project manager of Kaliwa Dam, said the MWSS had issued a “notice to proceed” in November last year for the contractor to “do the detailed engineering design only.”
“We would like to tell you no physical activity will be done on the site unless we secure the necessary permits and clearances,” Dorado said.
But work on the access road leading to Kaliwa Dam was believed to have started even in 2019.
Last month, over a hundred Dumagats attended a negotiation of the draft memorandum of agreement for the controversial dam project. NCIP’s Agusti said the MWSS and the communities failed to reach an agreement on the share of profits for the utilization of natural resources extracted from the ancestral domains of Dumagat communities.
Samahan ng mga Katutubong Agta na Pinagtatanggol at Binabaka ang Lupaing Ninuno president Marcelino Tena earlier said five of six clusters of IP communities consulted by the MWSS on the dam’s construction have voted to reject the project.
The dam, which is funded through a loan from China, is expected to add 600 million liters per day to the water supply of Metro Manila, which is dependent on Angat Dam in Bulacan.
Communities in Rizal and Quezon will have to relocate once the project is completed. The area where the dam will be built, in the forest landscape of Sierra Madre mountain range, is also home to threatened flora and fauna. — with Xave Gregorio
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