No End in Fight of Ibalois, Pangasinan Farmers to Stop Japan-Funded Dam

For two separate days last week, hundreds of Ibalois and Pangasinan upland farmers and gold panners stopped working to bring their appeal for a stop to the controversial San Roque Dam project.  First they trooped to the dam site in San Manuel town, Pangasinan where they were rebuffed by dam and energy officials. Unperturbed, they boarded buses and jeepneys and traveled hundreds of kilometers away to Metro Manila to confront Japanese Embassy as well as government authorities.

BY BULATLAT.COM

Work stopped for a day in northern Pangasinan and Ibaloi communities in Cordillera on Sept. 12 as farmers and gold panners trooped to Metro Manila to bring their case to stop the San Roque Dam project and urge Japanese officials to withdraw funding.

Boarding buses and jeepneys, at least 400 of them, including indigenous peoples advocates, left for Metro Manila to launch a series of mass protests which included pickets at the Japanese Embassy in Makati and at the offices of the National Power Corporation (NPC), the public information office of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) reported.  

Joan Carling (left), CPA secretary-general, confers with fellow rallyists as a security officer looks on.       
Photo courtesy of CPA

Three days earlier in San Manuel, a number of them held a picket at the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) to demand compensation for the damage to their lives and property as a result of the dam construction. Their demand for a dialog with SRPC and NPC officials was rebuffed.

In that picket, Norma Mo-oy of the Shalupirip Santahnay Indigenous People's Movement (SSIPM) and of Dalupirip - one of the affected communities of the dam project - likened the people's protests to the Agno River's flow and strength.  She said that the people will not stop until they reach the sea – symbolizing their protracted struggle to stop the project and compensation for what they have lost.

Japanese embassyAt the Japanese embassy on Sept. 12, the protesters appealed to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to stop funding the project. Violations on the conditions set by JBIC on project implementation were committed by the NPC such as the fulfillment of adequate compensation and livelihood sources for affected communities before loan disbursement, their leaders said.

The picket also denounced Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) which, protesters said, has been pushing the Filipino people deeper in a debt quagmire. Marubeni and Kansai are only two of Japanese companies involved in the San Roque Dam project. They are guaranteed super-profits while the Filipino people carry the burden of environmental, social and economic costs in the operation of this unjust dam, the protesters added.

During the picket, representatives of affected communities and advocates submitted an international petition paper calling for the dam impoundment to be aborted and a stop to the dam operation. The same petition was sent to Malacañang last Sept. 6.  The documents submitted through the Japanese Embassy were addressed to the Japan Ministry of Finance and JBIC.  Signing the petition were some 210 organizations in the Philippines and overseas as well as hundreds of individuals. It was also publicized in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sept. 9.

At noon, the protesters proceeded to the office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).  In a statement, the Ibaloys of Dalupirip together with the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) asked the NCIP officials to act favorably on the petition filed last May 2002 by  affected indigenous communities urging this body to protect their rights as indigenous peoples. In spite of the NCIP findings of the absence of the required free, prior and informed consent of the affected indigenous peoples for the San Roque Dam Project, no action has been done with regards to the clear violation of the Indigenous Peoples Rights law.

The last station of the protests for the day was at the NPC. The protesters called for the cancellation of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between NPC and SRPC because of its onerous terms and the full compensation of affected farmers in Pangasinan as a matter of obligation and commitment by NPC.

A dialogue with Roland Quilala, president-OIC of NPC and other NPC officials including Melchor Pulangco was held. 

During the dialogue, the Tignay dagiti Mannalon a Mangwayawaya ti Agno (TIMMAWA - Peasant Alliance to Free the Agno) demanded that the NPC pay the gold panners from San Nicolas and San Manuel who were economically displaced by the dam project.

Renato Reyes, spokesperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and a convenor of POWER , pushed for the stop of the San Roque project as the terms of the contract with SRPC are still under review.

Picket at dam siteEarlier on Sept. 9, 400 gold panners and farmers - all members of TIMMAWA and San Nicolas Gold Panners Association (SNGPA) went home disappointedly after officials of the National Power Corporation (NPC) and San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) ignored them as they picketed in front of the San Roque Dam construction site early last week.

A CPA news release cited TIMMAWA chairperson Jose Doton as saying that the group had written to NPC officials to ask for a dialogue but they were given a run-around by NPC staff. Their request was rebuffed, the release said.

The group, whose members came from the towns of San Nicolas and San Manuel, picketed the NPC Sept. 9 to press anew their demand to stop the impounding of the San Roque Dam so that they can continue with their gold panning and farming – their main sources of livelihood. A petition paper bearing the signatures of gold panners and farmers said that the SRPC and NPC should compensate for the economic displacement of the people brought about by the dam construction. The paper never got to NPC officials.

"This only shows the insincerity of SRPC and NPC in paying their long-overdue debts and in attending to the just demands of the affected people of San Manuel and San Nicolas in Pangasinan," said Doton.

Pedro Macadangdang, chair of the San Nicolas Gold Panners Association, demanded NPC and SRPC to pay P171,000 as payment for the three-year income lost by each gold panner in San Manuel and San Nicolas. “This amount was based on the minimum income that could get by each gold panner on their daily gold panning activity," he said.

TIMMAWA is also demanding payment for the now non-productive agricultural lands caused by the quarrying activities of the SRPC over the past three years. The group said quarrying led to the loss of supply of water to their rice fields and, as a result, damaged their lands and crops. For the farmers, SRPC payments should correspond to the productive value of the lands destroyed by quarrying.

Furthermore, TIMMAWA leaders are demanding that NPC should only settle the compensations directly with them and not with some local executives who, reports said, want to form a new group of gold panners and farmers association. They are also calling for the cancellation of the remaining funds from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and also to review the terms of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between the SRPC and NPC.

The affected gold panners and farmers said they will continue to lobby for their legitimate demands and are set to hold more more protests against the San Roque Mega Dam. Their campaign is supported by 100 national organizations and 108 international organizations. Bulatlat.com

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