Apayao IPs seek PDU30 help over dam project

THE indigenous people (IP) of Kabugao, Apayao belonging to the Isnag tribe, are seeking the help of Pres. Duterte in finally putting a stop to a privately-financed, 150MW hydro-electric dam project that they claim will “submerge” much of their ancestral domain including their communities, schools and even their traditional burial grounds.

In a two-page letter to Pres. Duterte thru Dir. Jaime L. Mabilin of the Presidential Action Center in Malacañang, the signatories also accused the provincial and regional officials of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) of “bias” for “surreptitiously” and “deceitfully” manipulating the result of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Isnags and the dam proponent, Pan-Pacific Renewable Power Philippines Corporation (PPRPPC).

“That purported MOA was never explained and understood by us. IPs, as provided by the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA),” they charged.

Attached to their letter to Pres. Duterte are documents purportedly signed by the Isnags’ ‘Council of Elders’ “confirming the surreptitious and deceitful ways employed by the proponents with the participation of our NCIP regional and field offices.”

A complete copy of the Isnags’ letter to Malacañan together with attachments was furnished to Pinoy Exposé during a meeting at the National Press Club office last May 14, 2021.

The group, thru their representatives, had sought the media’s help in airing their advocacy saying they are up against “very powerful and influential people.”

From the documents, it appears that last April 28, 2021, the Isnags has written to the NCIP regional office in Baguio City thru Atty. Atanacio Addog, team leader, Free and Prior Informed Consent Team, to once again protest the manner by which the NCIP had been rejecting their resolutions that dates back to 2019 opposing the dam project, particularly, ‘GENED-1 HEPP,’ “because of mere technicalities.”

The April 28 letter to the NCIP also protested the March 28, 2021, consultation initiated by the commission where all their protests were not entertained and that the process was conducted thru ‘secret balloting,’ which was against their practice of ‘viva voce.’ The secret balloting resulted to the ‘Yes’ votes in favor of further “negotiation” with the company.

Afterwards, in the next round of ‘consultation’ held last April 7, 2021 and again, despite opposition, the provincial officer of the NCIP initiated the reading of a “pre-drafted MOA” that they somehow managed to opposed that day but this was subsequently “approved” in another general assembly last April 20, 2021, when alleged “innocent IP leaders and elders” were brought to Bgy. EKB in Abugao purportedly for a meeting with Apayao Rep. Elias Bulut Jr.

“During that purported general assembly with the congressman, representatives of PPRPPC made the IP leaders/elders present sign the MOA, which we are now opposing and seeking nullification, the group said.

Attached to this letter is a “joint affidavit” of the village council of Bgy. Poblacion, expressing their opposition to the dam project as Bgy. Poblacion “being one of those directly affected and be erased in the map of our town of Kabugao once the proposed project prospers.”

Also attached are ‘affidavits of retraction’ signed by some of those who had previously signed the questionable MOA signed last April 20, 2021.

The documents also disclosed that the proposal to build the 600 MW ‘Apayao-Abulog HEP (hydroelectric plant) in Apayao was first brought to the IPs attention in 2014, to be built by PPRPPC.

Subsequently, the government, thru the Department of Energy, decided to “split” the project into two parts, one for 150MW, which is the target of the Isnags’ current advocacy, to be followed by another dam project with a capacity of 250MW.

The group said that since the start of “consensus building” effort in 2015 by the company and its allies in government, “the overwhelming majority of indigenous peoples of Kabugao, Apayao, through appropriate resolutions, opposed and did not give their consent to the said project and opted not to negotiate anymore with the proponents “ (this article was updated to remove the names of those who met with Pinoy Exposé last May 14, 2021, on their request for their own safety– Ed).