by Zeus Legaspi
(This article is the first of two parts. Read part two here.)
It has been a few years since Marcelino Tena, a Dumagat tribesman, has looked at the vast green landscape at the foot of Sierra Madre without anxiety. During the past few years, his community, populated by his fellow Dumagat-Remontado people, has been invaded by behemoth trucks and relentless surveyors – harbingers of destruction says he; they have come to ruin what they call home.
Marcelino is the president of the Samahan ng mga Katutubong Agta-Dumagat-Remontado sa Pagtatanggol at Binabaka and Lupang Ninuno (SAGUIBIN-LN) and he is leading the protest against Kaliwa Dam, a part of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s (MWSS) New Centennial Water Source project.
A Looming Water Crisis.
“[With the] urbanization and industrialization of Metro Manila and (its) neighboring provinces, definitely we will start to face (a) water crisis in a few years,” Engineer Ryan James Ayson, a division manager at MWSS said in an interview with this reporter.
Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces including parts of Cavite, Bulacan, and Rizal get their water chiefly from Angat Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Ayson said that the dam supplies 90 percent of Manila’s water but other sources put it closer to 96 to 98 percent.
But the water level at the decades-old reservoir, in conjunction with seemingly unpredictable wet and dry seasons and an uptick in demand, has become increasingly unreliable.
“In normal years, the Angat Dam is sufficient to meet the demand to meet the water supply. However, the situation varies depending on the length of our wet and dry seasons. Right now, climate change is a factor. We are expecting changes in our wet and dry seasons. We have to adapt,” the engineer explained in a mix of Filipino and English.
Angat Dam, just this year, has already faced a number of fluctuations in its water level – dipping up to 196 meters in March and 188.61 meters this month. This is far from its normal high water level of around 210 to 212 meters. A drop in water level means a drop in water pressure, or worse, water interruptions, for those living in the Manila area.
Against this backdrop, Metro Manila water providers have been scrambling for solutions to assist Angat Dam in providing water for the region to prevent a repeat of the 2019 water crisis.
“Our concessionaires have already started to augment the water supply. We have the Putatan Treatment Plant in Muntinlupa. Manila Water is also tapping the Laguna Lake through Cardona Water Treatment Plant. And right now, we have an ongoing Wawa-Calawis Water Supply Project which is expected to augment the water supply by October this year,” Ayson assured.
“But in the long term, of course, we need a more permanent solution. At present, the MWSS is constructing the Kaliwa Dam,” he added.
The Costly Solution
The Kaliwa Dam Project has been awarded to a Chinese contractor, China Energy Engineering Corporation Limited, in November 2019. Construction is slated to begin in June 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2026. It is designed to cross the provinces of Quezon, the location of Kaliwa River, and Rizal where the water will be transported via a 21-kilometer tunnel.
Proposed by the Philippine government in 2012, the dam is only one of the various water supply projects on the upper portion of the Kaliwa River Watershed.
Originally, the project was set for January 2020 until December 2025, but the contractors had to extend construction due to limitations brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, MWSS has already mobilized its land development arm for the said construction.
Engineer Ayson explained that the project is expected to provide an additional 600 million liters of water per day to Manila’s Metro area and a reservoir of 20 million cubic meters.
With its breadth, it is not difficult to imagine why the outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called Kaliwa Dam a “last resort” for Manila’s water woes. In fact, the dam is the flagship project of his administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program. Despite the dam not being completed during his stay in Malacañang, Duterte said that he is ready to use the “extraordinary powers” of his office to ensure the completion of the project.
The government has taken lengths to defend the Kaliwa Dam Project by describing it as a solution to Metro Manila’s looming water crisis. The Chinese embassy spokesperson also commented on the project, saying that Kaliwa Dam will “fundamentally alleviate the severe challenge of the water shortage in Metro Manila.”
MWSS’ website page on the Kaliwa Dam Project states that the dam’s construction costs 12.20 billion pesos. It is funded in part by a 283.2 million US dollar (15.5 billion pesos) loan from China.
The project is indeed expensive. But its true cost, however, lies beyond its multi-billion-peso funding.
The Environment department’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) said that Kaliwa Dam will “cover a reservoir surface area of 291 hectares with a gross reservoir volume of 57 million cubic meters at the full supply level.”
In other words, the dam will flood about 300 hectares of protected and forested areas in the Sierra Madre mountain range.
The dam’s construction falls under the protected ancestral domain that is home to at least 5,000 Dumagat-Remontado indigenous people and will displace inhabitants of affected barangays in Tanay, Infanta, and General Nakar, Quezon.
The dam’s construction is also expected to permanently displace at least 126 species of animals including the endangered Philippine Eagle. About 96 endemic species of flora and fauna are also seen to be threatened by the China-funded project.
“The dam will flood 300 hectares of land. If all of that forested area turns into a water reservoir, there would be no trees to handle the carbon emissions in the atmosphere,” Fr. Pedro Montallana, former Executive Director of Save Sierra Madre Network Inc., said.
Further, the dam will not only displace flora and fauna, but also the people who inhabit the land that the dam’s construction will traverse.
“The affected people who live in the area total around 56 families. So they would have to be relocated,” said Ayson.
As per the EMB’s 2019 report, Kaliwa Dam’s construction will “indirectly impact” 56 indigenous peoples’ households and place 284 more “at risk of flooding and other effects of possible dam failure or dam break.”
“Compared to the previous plan for Laiban Dam back then, [the affected people] total to around 9 barangays – 4000 families,” the engineer added, referring to the Laiban Dam Project in 2009 that ultimately came to a halt.
Because of these factors, Fr. Pete believes that constructing a dam is not the optimal solution for Manila’s water shortage.
“There are alternatives to solving the water problem in Manila. Water impounding can be done. It’s already being done in other countries. Why will we deprive the IPs of their land when there are alternatives to the problem?” he said.
The Arduous Struggle for Conservation
MWSS claimed to have undergone and is still undergoing the processes mandated by law to ensure that the construction of the Kaliwa Dam, and other water supply projects in the area, are legal and ethical.
However, in 2021, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the Kaliwa Dam project for review, citing MWSS’ failure to submit proof that it is implementing measures to protect the environment.
“With regards to the IP (indigenous peoples), we have this FPIC process, as it is called, provided by the IPRA law,” Ayson assured.
The Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA) is a comprehensive law that seeks to safeguard the rights of IPs to their ancestral land, among others. It had adopted the concept of Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) to, ideally, protect the IP’s rights and give them a choice in the matters that may affect their communities.
The FPIC process became somewhat of ground for negotiation between the IP community and the applicant – in this case, the MWSS.
Engineer Ayson asserted that the MWSS has been constantly communicating with the “actual stakeholders” of the project from the barangay to the provincial level. He said that they have already acquired the endorsement from the barangay, municipal, provincial, and regional development councils of the affected areas except for Infanta, Quezon.
“What MWSS did, in coordination with the NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples), is we conducted several consultations with the IP groups. It lasted two years. Their concerns, we have gathered all of them. We give them to our contractors so they can adjust their designs accordingly. There will still be affected people but not as many as the initial design” Ayson said in a mix of Filipino and English.
But Dumagat leader Marcelino Tena belied Ayson’s statements.
“That is not true. The only people they have confronted are the natives who have no qualms about their project; they have only reached out to those they have bribed and have dressed as ‘fake leaders’ to make it appear that the indigenous people approve of Kaliwa Dam,” SAGUIBIN-LN’s president said in Filipino.
“About 80 percent of the people in our community disapproves of this project. We did not give our consent. We were non-consent during the FPIC process here,” he added.
Embroiled in an arduous legal battle with development giants, Marcelino recalled that during their Senate and Congress hearings, it was discovered that MWSS had no sufficient legal documents to push through with the project.
“Their advances in our area are illegal. This is what I’m holding unto. This is why I am hoping that the construction of Kaliwa Dam can still be stopped,” the tribe leader said.
Marcelino enumerated who he perceives as their “enemies” in their battle for the Kaliwa River and Sierra Madre’s conservation.
“First is the MWSS; the second is the NCIP; the third is our bribed tribesmen,” he lamented.
“But primarily, our enemy is the NCIP. They are supposed to be protecting us but instead, they have been siding with the developers. They are supposed to be conserving the environment but they themselves have been breaking our laws – the laws of the indigenous people,” the Dumagat leader exclaimed in Filipino.
“That is really the problem,” Ma. Virginia Aguilar, a professor at the De La Salle University – Dasmariñas Social Sciences Department said.
“If the IPRA law is actually being followed, they (IPs) will not be ousted from their areas. Instead, they have been labeled as being anti-development,” she added.
The Long View
“MWSS’ vision is to have a sustainable and reliable water supply,” said Ayson in a mix of Filipino and English.
But Marcelino and his people, along with other environmental groups may disagree with the engineer’s statement.
The Kaliwa Dam Project has been flagged and protested against for potential environmental and indigenous rights threats. Even the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) opposes the dam’s construction.
In a statement, the CBCP said that the project is against inclusive development and that the IPs should “not be sacrificed on the altar of development aggression, which would just benefit big businesses and Chinese investors.”
China’s significant role in the Kaliwa Dam’s construction has also attracted suspicion and flak from various sectors because of the superpower’s military buildup in the West Philippine Sea. China-funded projects, including Kaliwa Dam, are seen as undermining the country’s sovereignty.
Engineer Ayson seemingly brushed off the protests against the project. He said, “there will always be environmental groups whose objective is to stop the project. The only thing that we can say to them is that we address them on a proper forum.”
Despite protests and controversies, the construction of the Kaliwa Dam shows no sign of stopping.
“Their trucks have left our access roads, but according to reports, they have started mobilizing in Teresa,” SAGUIBIN-LN’s president said.
The Kaliwa Dam is not the only controversial water supply project the government is currently engaged with.
The Wawa-Calawis Water Treatment Plant is also marred with controversy as it is slated to operate in the ancestral domain of the Antipolo Dumagat-Remontado. But recently, Manila Water said it had obtained consent from the indigenous peoples to build and operate the plant in the area, painting a bleak scene for the Dumagat people in Quezon.
“My only message to the people is to please help us in our battle; help us to stop Kaliwa Dam; help us reveal the rotten practices by the NCIP and MWSS. They have broken the law as they invaded our native land,” Marcelino said.
At present, the Catholic Church, several Non-Government Organizations, and civil society groups have been assisting the Dumagat-Remontados in their struggle to stop the Kaliwa Dam Project, the Dumagat leader explained.
“Our plan right now is to keep on monitoring MWSS’ actions. If we see them make their move, we will also move to protest against them. We will reveal their inadequacies and we will keep on pressing our rights to our ancestral land to stop the construction of Kaliwa Dam,” he added.
There is still no light at the end of the tunnel for Marcelino and his people.
For Fr. Montallana of Save Sierra Madre Network Inc., a convenor of Stop Kaliwa Dam Network (SKDM) who has been assisting the Dumagat-Remontados in parts of Quezon and Rizal since 2009, the future looks dim.
For him, even though Duterte would no longer be the country’s president, he would be replaced by someone not unlike him.
“With the incoming administration of Marcos in a few days, we can see that his vision is much like that of Duterte’s. It’s possible that they would railroad Kaliwa Dam even further,” he explained.
“But it is still possible that things could change,” the former executive director said.
Perhaps, in the midst of their campaign against the titans of industrialization, he realized that it would not hurt to have a sliver of optimism.
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