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Kalinga women listen with solemn faces to the program during Cordillera Day. Photos by Oliver Garcia

Memories of a Kalinga elder

Recalling the Past, Confronting the Present

Letty Bula-at was 27 years old and with only one child when she and other Kalinga women raided four times the National Power Corporation (NPC) camp being constructed near their village in Tabuk, Kalinga. The NPC was supervising the construction of the Chico River Dam that would submerge hundreds of hectares of ancestral lands. Twenty-seven years and several children later, Ina Letty recalls their struggle and stresses the importance of making the young understand the struggles of the past.

By ROWENA CARRANZA

BULATLAT.COM

The Chico River Basin Development Project was conceived in 1965, aimed to produce 1,010 megawatts of electricity. There were supposed to be four target dam sites: Sabangan and Sadanga, both in Mountain Province, and Basao and Tomiangan, both in Kalinga. The biggest dam was to be Chico IV in Tomiangan and would have displaced over a thousand Kalinga families alone, directly submerging at least four towns and several hundreds of hectares of land. These included rice terraces, sacred burial grounds, kaingin farms and village homes occupied by the Kalinga tribes for centuries.

Ina Letty’s village, Dupag, lies just beside Tomiangan. Her clan was one of those threatened to be displaced by the Chico River Dam project. But to her and other Kalingans, it was not only their houses and farms at stake. “The future of our children, our race, was on the line. How could we bear to be passive and not fight?” they asked.

The village elders decided that in order to prevent the then Marcos government from building the dam, they must stop any attempt to construct any structure connected with the project. The NPC, guarded by Philippine Constabulary (PC), now the Philippine National Police, wanted to put up a project site headquarters near Dupag.

The villagers then raided the construction site, disbanding the tents and whatever structure that started to be put up. PC elements securing the area were helpless in the face of the tribe’s wrath.

Knowing it was not enough to stop the construction, the village elders assigned the women to monitor the movements of the NPC so they would be alerted when it attempts to again erect any structure.

Ina Letty (third from left) with CPA chairman Joan Carling and Markus Bangit, secretary-general of Binodngan People’s Organization. Photo by Oliver Garcia

According to Ina Letty, the monitoring was done round the clock. They divided themselves into several groups and took turns watching the NPC camp. Others brought food and water to the lookouts. They agreed on a signal which when sounded meant the NPC personnel were back and setting up camp again. More than a thousand men and women from different tribes in the area, not just Ina Letty’s, would then rush to the site and literally and physically stop the NPC construction. Only the pregnant were exempted from the fetad (tribal mobilization for war).

To stop them, the PC men hit both men and women, using clubs and rifle butts. But the Kalinga women were undaunted. In one instance, it was decided that only the women would confront the PC and NPC personnel. They bared their breasts, a signal of defiance and rage, before they disbanded the camp. To PC elements who were also tribal members, they shouted, “Why have you sold out your land and people?”

Four times the NPC attempted to set up their camp. Four times the Kalinga men and women stopped them. On the second attempt, they threw the disbanded tents into the raging waters of the Chico River. On the third attempt, they marched more than 32 kilometers to Bulanao and carried the disbanded tents to the PC headquarters.

On the fourth, the men climbed up the roof and, with bare hands, tore it down. Others used stones to pull out nails and take down walls. The logs being discharged from a truck were brought back into the truck by the angry tribesmen.

Many members of Ina Letty’s tribes were among the 160 persons brought to police and military camps, including Camp Olivas in Pampanga, after the incident. They were arrested and taken on board the truck used to haul logs. But their detention only further inflamed the fire of resistance.

Banding together, the tribes in the region successfully resisted the construction of all four dams through tribal mobilizations, petitions, demonstrations and even armed struggle. The Marcos government was forced to withdraw the project, especially in the face of strong public support generated by tribal resistance.

The bravery shown by the Kalinga people, particularly the women, in the struggle against the Chico River Dam project now forms part of the Cordillera peoples’ history. Ina Letty, now herself one of her tribe’s elders, is anxious that the story of the Chico Dam struggle be understood by the young generation.

“We tirelessly recount to our children what happened, usually through story-telling. Sometimes, when there are cultural workshops, we narrate it to the youth,” she said.

“It is important for the young to know the past… for in history lies the wisdom of the ancestors. It is in history that we find the guide on how to confront the present.”

During the Cordillera Day celebration last April 24, participants identified government projects like the San Roque Dam and destructive mining operations, as among the major problems facing the regions. Thus, for Ina Letty and the rest of the Cordillera people, the fight did not end with the Chico River Dam. Defending their life and land, the struggle surges on, like the river where everything started. Bulatlat.com

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