INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S WATCH

Power or Land: Ata-Manobo Tribes Face Fierce Battle

Reminiscent of their fight against a logging company, the Ata-Manobo tribes vowed to defend their land once more if a private company encroaches into their domain, with the approval of government agencies. The company promises to supply electric power which tribal leaders say they don’t need.

BY CHERYLL D. FIEL
Bulatlat

DAVAO DEL NORTE – From the mountain ranges in this province they consider their ancestral home, they travelled last May 12 for three hours to Davao City to issue a public statement on a life-and-death topic – their own.

The Ata-Manobo indigenous people who hail from the mountain ranges extending from Talaingod town (Lumad capital of this province) to the Pantaron ranges located in the Davao-Bukidnon boundary left their farms temporarily to say that they will never sacrifice their lives and livelihood in favor of a private company’s.

They will never allow a private company, they said, to divert their major river, put a hole through one of their mountains and build an intake dam in one of their communities just so the company, with the approval of government agencies, can produce a power generation facility.

Based on a project brief obtained by the organization Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanugon (Unity in Defense of Ancestral Land), project proponent Hydro Energy Corporation and government agencies like the Department of Energy (DoE) are set to construct a hydropower plant within 73 hectares of land presently occupied by indigenous communities of the hinterlands of Talaingod.

Expected to generate some 9 megawatts (MW) of electricity and a yearly energy output of 65.5 gigawatt-hours (GWH), the cost of the project is about P738 million ($13.62 million, based on an exchange rate of P54.20 per U.S. dollar). The project will be funded by a loan from a Japanese agency.

To generate power, the main river of the communities - Kipaliku River (also known as Talomo River) - will be diverted to meet another river, Gabuyan River. Diverting about 55 percent of the original river-run off is therefore needed to generate power.

Registering their dissent

The Lumads said however diverting a major river which is one of the tributaries of the largest river in the province, the Libuganon River, will make many communities become high risk to heavy flooding or worse, flash floods.

Aside from flooding, the Lumads also warned that oil coming from the power generator will contaminate the river.

Furthermore, they said, diverting the river would cause some portions to dry up and marine resources depleted, thereby taking away the main life source of many indigenous communities.

Believing that they would get nothing from the project, the Lumads of Salugpungan said that the it is mainly intended to provide electricity to commercial plantations found at the foot of Talaingod. According to them, the electric power might also be used for opening up mining activities in the Pantaron Ranges.

Besides, they stressed, electricity is not their basic need.

The requisites

At present, the proponent has yet to secure a permit from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) or Certificate of Precondition (CP). The latter will only be released after a Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) with the stakeholders is held.

Even before this is being done however members of Salugpungan are asking why construction equipment for the hydropower dam is being brought up the mountains, accompanied by government soldiers.

Just last May 3, they saw three six-by-six military trucks loaded with soldiers coming to their area.

The Lumads stressed that early this year, a tribal leader of Sitio Damuluhan, one of the communities directly affected by the project, had been shot at by armed men believed to be members of the Alamara, a government paramilitary group.

NCIP helpless?

In the May 12 dialogue held at the NCIP regional office, NCIP Director Roque Agton said he knew nothing of a military presence in the area. However, he said that his office cannot “prevent the AFP from pursuing its own agenda."

While Agton assured that no Certificate of Pre-Condition has been issued yet and that no such thing will be released until an FPIC has been conducted, Lumads warned against the NCIP being reduced to a “rubber-stamp” authority in this case.

Tradition of bearing arms

The members of Salugpungan warned against the use of military strength to push through with the project. They said that they will defend their ancestral land, just as they did years ago when they fought the company guards of a logging concession who forced their way into their area.

The datus (tribal leaders) who signed this letter of dissent against the hydroelectric power generation project were the same tribal leaders who stood up, using their indigenous arms, spears and arrows, to fight the encroachment into their territory of a logging concession, Alson's Company, who used military support.

These Lumads eventually won in the fierce battle against Alson's. Bulatlat

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