Kalinga folk to rally against dam

KALINGA elders have submitted their opposition the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

Over 200 signatures are in the petition which was hand carried to the office of NCIP regional director Ronald Calde for his action.

The letter to the NCIP is the formal protest of direct stakeholders to the proposed 52MW hydro electric dam by the San Lorenzo Builders and Developers Group (Karayan Inc.).

A protest rally set next week at the streets of Tabuk to mark the protest of

stakeholders against the project.

The rally will be graced by elders, stakeholders including those who fought alongside Macliing Dulag in the past against a similar project along the Chico River in the hope that awareness will rise for the anticipated shelving of the project.

“We are strongly opposing the proposed dam because our ancestral inheritance will surely be damage. This land is the source of our living and also where they buried our ancestors,” the petition read.

Stakeholders include members of the Naneng, Dallak and Minanga sub - tribes and the residents of sitio Banat, Bagumbayan whose lands will be directly affected by the project.

Petitioners claim those who voted in favor of the project are not directly affected by its construction and operation.

The project is being spearheaded by contractor Oscar Violago of the San Lorenzo Builders and Developers Group (Karayan Incorporated) and is now in the process of asking for consent from villages facilitated by the National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP).

However, NCIP Kalinga provincial officer Natividad Suggiayao said all guidelines set by law were followed in the approval of the 52MW Chico River hydro electric project.

Suggiyao said consultation processes as well as voting was conducted in accordance to nfip set guidelines which showed a majority for the project.

The NCIP led consultations with communities as well as the voting done last week which gave the go signal for the company to proceed with the project.

Suggiyao said elders and stakeholders were present in the voting and now will proceed to the negotiation stages before signing the memorandum of agreement.