Metro Infanta Foundation

By Pol Derilo

Task Force Sierra Madre - Northern Luzon has always been busy during the last few months.

With a chapter organized in each of the three RIN towns, the overall umbrella organization has been incorporated and registered on July 20, 2007 with SEC as a non-profit entity. The overall chairperson is Fr. Pete Montallana. On a rotation basis however, his function will be taken over by the chapter chairpersons because of his new parish assignment in Dingalan, Quezon. It takes a day to go there from Infanta either by boat or by land through Manila- Nueva Ecija route.

With 2008 just a few months away, TFSM is bracing up for what might be an uphill job of convincing our big government and Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) not to build Laiban Dam in Kaliwa River, in Gen. Nakar. The dam is claimed to augment water & electricity in Metro Manila.

Within the next two months, a massive signature campaign will be launched in RIN to demonstrate a united opposition to the project. The campaign will cut across all population sectors including primary schools children and college students. Task Force Sierra Madre hopes to gather 80,000 signatures from the 3 adjacent towns.

The three new municipal councils have been urged to take active roles in managing the campaign as well as adopting resolutions opposing the construction.

The campaign will all be preceded by arguments, presentations and concrete data from Phivolcs, Mirriam College and other NGOs all supporting the project opposition.

Foremost reason is the fact that the project lies between the Marikina and Real-Infanta fault lines. Using available maps and scaling the site to the fault lines shows that it is within its 50km. radius. An earthquake intensity of 7.00 scale is imagined to be a breaking point for the dam structure. Such disaster will surpass the loss of lives and destruction of properties suffered in November, 2004.

MWSS is denying the proximity to the fault lines but was advised by Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) to undertake further seismic analysis tsupposedly to update their detailed engineering designs. The last known historic data used for this project was gathered during 1980s, considered obsolete in the context of recent geological events of 2004. Likewise, the committee also directed MWSS to conduct a dam break analysis using realistic and catastrophic scenarios so that minimum warning and emergency measures to protect the closest inhabited areas. Brgy. Daraitan and Brgy. Magsaysay appear to be closest areas to the project.

The dam to be constructed in Brgy.Laiban, will be 113 meters high, 500 m. wide and will have a 2 to 5 kilometers long water reservoir that runs in westerly direction along 6 barangays in Tanay, Rizal & Brgy. Lumutan in Gen. Nakar, Quezon. It will displace approximately 3,500 families living in these barangays that include indigenous Dumagat and Remontados. Our trip to this area last June revealed a scenic natural and productive valley, a breathtaking grandeur to appreciate. It breaks one’s heart to imagine it will submerge to provide a supertank that will quench the thirst and greed of its catering developers.

To this, MWSS remarked that compensation was estimated based on the loss of property and livelihood and a carefully selected relocation area has been selected. The relocation of the indigenous population will be managed by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

Convergence Zone
From the Metro Manila side of Sierra Madre, numerous environmental and caused-oriented groups have also raised their concerns about Laiban Dam. The Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission (JPICC), in its open letter to GMA also enumerated 5 issues which they summarized as “high social, economic and environmental costs”. On a religious point of view, they “adhere to the moral obligation of protecting God’s people and their inherent right to a safe and healthy environment”. Water may not be viewed as another commodity. On the contrary, access to its supply may not be controlled by the few who has the means to destroy or exhaust it during the present and future generations. Its use should be for the benefit of the human community and for the integrity of the whole creation. This open letter was signed by 14 religious superiors in the Philippines. Another statement from environmental groups with similar arguments was signed by 36 signatory organizations. The common rationale of the two statements are:

Displacements of the residents in the 8 barangays to be submerged;
The $1B costs is considered expensive;
Loss of existing infrastructure in the area;
Diminished water flow in the Agos River that sustain agriculture in RIN and
Project is too close to existing earthquake zones.

Real - Infanta - Gen. Nakar

The RIN oppositions are supported by the following:

Close proximity to fault lines pose grave danger to lives and properties in the RIN area;
* Reduce water flow of Agos River also diminish water supply for the irrigation system thus jeopardizing agricultural production and altering the ecosystem in the mangrove area;
* The technical data was done in the 1980s and could be obsolete considering that catastrophic floods and erosion has taken, the latest being in 2004;
* Displace the indigenous tribes of the Remontados and Dumagats from their ancestral domain and disrupt their way of life as transient people; and
* Loss of previous initiatives and programs designed to benefit small farmers under the Protected Area Community Based Resource Management Agreement (PACBRAMA).

To maximize the use of time and efforts, simultaneous opposition to another disastrous project, the Kanan B1 dam was launched with this initiative. In addition to environmentally related reasons, two other issues surfaced last April that triggered condemnation of the past LGU officials in Gen. Nakar well as their rejection in the last election. They hinged on two undisputed facts:

* The Municipal Government of Gen. Nakar did not conduct any public consultations relating to environmentally critical projects as required by Local Government Code and NIPAS Law; and
* The partnership interred into by the Municipal Government with Energy World International was financially onerous against the people who will ultimately shoulder the obligations of their local government.

Other Developments
While the campaign is underway, a press conference was held at Mirriam College The convergence group in which TFSM is a collaborator hopes to focus public awareness of the growing environmental issues resulting from the seemingly desperate attempts of the government for foreign investments. In her own Statement Of Nature Awareness, Dr. Donna Paz Reyes, Mirriam’s Executive Director of Environmental Studies Institute, said that GMA’s “passing mention of the environment in last Monday’s State of the Nation Address, specifically her declaration of natural parks, only bolstered .....the perception of her low regard for the environment.”

A few days ago, the president proclaimed La Mesa Dam as a protected watershed area. This could have been a great surprise except for “subject to private rights” catch phrase in the proclamation. It turned out that MWSS housing project for its 1,400 employees will sprung up in a 58 hectare wooded area of the basin. Adverse reactions to this decision were already in the open ranging from restraining order petition to accusations of hypocrisy, terrorism and genocide. Except for the two common denominators which are MWSS and the national government, Laiban project and this housing project are both environmentally destructive and conflicting to the people involved in it. One will be displaced for the water while the other implanted by the water. Some of those displaced are ancestrally rooted in their domain while those implanted are foreign to theiir new place of affluence. What we see in these scenarios are government policies going in opposite directions but targeting a common goal for the money in unison. Regardless of the people and their environment, give way for the gold and power.

The next three years are said to be for capping the legacies of the administration in many regions and provinces of the Philippines but Quezon as only one item was mentioned in her SONA list. It was about a transfer of ownership between two foreign companies of the coal generating plant in Pagbilao that has been in operation for at least 5 years.

For a short while, one may be content for this assumed legacy. Our province has endured many years of relative retrogression in the Calabarzon. I for one will be extremely grateful if nobody finish what was started with Laiban Dam. It means progress environmentally, peace and security humanely.