LGU, Church in Tanay support antidam marchers Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 08, 2009
TANAY, RIZAL, Philippines—Sierra Madre tribesmen, farmers, religious and environmentalist groups on a 148-kilometer march against the Laiban dam received a much needed respite and support when they entered Tanay, Rizal, Sunday.
Tanay Mayor Rafael Tanjuatco told the Inquirer in a text message that the local government and the Catholic Church in Tanay held a solidarity program to greet the marchers.
The nine-day march to Malacańang organized by the Save the Sierra Madre Network began Wednesday in General Nakar, Quezon.
Tanjuatco said they strongly oppose the project, a joint-venture project of the San Miguel Corp. and the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System, which has been designed to divert water from two river systems in the Sierra Madre—Kaliwa and Kanan—to supply potable water to Metro Manila.
The two mountain rivers are major tributaries of the Agos River, which runs along General Nakar and Infanta towns.
In August, the Tanay municipal council passed a resolution indicating that the project will be costly and would cause incomparable loss of biodiversity inside the critical watershed area.
The resolution noted that the project was not properly endorsed by the Tanay municipal development council, provincial development council of Rizal, and the regional development council of Calabarzon.
Another group of farmers and indigenous groups led by Bigkis at Lakas ng mga Katutubo sa Timog Katagalugan (Balatik) held a fact-finding mission from Nov. 6-8 in Barangay Lumutan in General Nakar to investigate reports of harassment of Dumagat leaders opposing the dam in northern Quezon.
Tony Calbayog, chairperson of Balatik, said they would not stop protesting the project because “it is the very lives of indigenous people that are at stake.”
The 28,000-hectare dam reservoir would displace 4,413 families from seven barangays and flood rainforests with endemic and endangered species, and areas being claimed as ancestral lands by the Dumagat and Remontado peoples, said a statement of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Pambansang Kilusan ng Samahang Magsasaka, Task Force Sierra Madre, the prelature of Infanta and local governments in northern Quezon.
During the Marcos regime, the dam project was proposed to be a part of the so-called industrial complex plan in northeastern Luzon but opposition to it forced proponents to shelve the project. Clarice Colting-Pulumbarit, Inquirer Southern Luzon
