Kaliwa Dam will displace IPs —Bayan Muna

Militant party-list group Bayan Muna on Saturday said the China-funded New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project in Quezon province will displace idigenous people and submerge their ancestral land.

In a statement, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate and Bayan Muna chairman and Makabayan senatorial bet Neri Colmenares said that since 1984 indigenous people like the Remontados and Dumagats have opposed the construction of the Laiban or the parent of the Kaliwa-Kanan dam projects.

"They rightly opposed this project because it would submerge nine villages in Rizal and Quezon provinces or at least 28,000 hectares of land," Colmenares said.

"It will also displace at least 5,000 families of indigenous people when they push through with this onerous China loan funded Kaliwa dam," Colmenares said.

The P18.724-billion Kaliwa Dam project seeks to develop a new water source in order to meet the National Capital Region's increasing water demand.

In November 2018, both government officials from China and the Philippines signed the loan agreement for the project.

"The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) should first be stricter in the massive systems loss or non-revenue water of Maynilad and Manila Water, they are losing more than 1 billion liters per day because of leakages then they have the gall to say that there would be water interruptions because of low water supply," Colmenares said.

"After this they could alao look at the rehabilitation of the Wawa dam and the Kaliwa Weir that is being proposed. They should not go roughshod on this Kaliwa dam that has many questionable provisions and will evict Remontados and Dumagats," he said.

For his part, Zarate said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should also remain steadfast and not give an environment compliance certificate (ECC) to the Kaliwa dam project as it would destroy the ecosystem in those parts of Rizal and Quezon.

"People would support the DENR if they would side with the indigenous people and the environment," Zarate said.

"DENR officials should also come out in public if they are being pressured to issue an ECC so that the public can help them defend the environment," the lawmaker said.

Colmenares has earlier hit the allegedly "onerous" loan deal on the P3.6-billion Chico River Pump Irrigation Project , which he said "highly favors China." 

"We also assert that the waiver (Appendix 6) on the Kaliwa dam China loan could endanger government assets of commercial in nature.  We demand from the Department of Finance that such provision be stricken out as it endangers properties of MWSS including Kaliwa dam as well as other government assets which are not expressly prohibited by law from being subject to execution in an arbitral award," Colmenares said.

He said the Kaliwa Dam loan deal is no different from the Chico river loan agreement. "Dehado na naman tayo sa China dito," he said.

"We further demand from government to publish all loan agreements with China.  After all since the Filipino people will pay for these loans, we have the right to see the loans that will enslave us in the next 20 years," he said. — Ted Cordero/MDM, GMA News