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Agta leader vows to keep up protest vs Laiban dam
By Delfin Mallari Jr.
Inquirer Southern Luzon
Posted date: November 10, 2009

LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines — The tribal leader who has been leading a 148-kilometer march of 200 protesters from Quezon to Manila vowed on Tuesday to keep up their opposition to the Laiban dam project.

Agta tribe leader Nap Buendicho said an official of the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System—which has been pushing for the dam project in partnership with the San Miguel Corporation—vowed to hold consultations with communities to be affected by the multi-billion-peso project in Quezon.

Buendicho, however, said the project would endanger their communities’ eco-system and might lead to a catastrophe during an earthquake, as the proposed project site was on active earthquake fault.

Their communities, therefore, would not consent to the project, even if government held consultations, Buendicho said.’

“The government should abandon the project. No amount of consultation can change our minds,” he said.

Buendicho recalled that an official of the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System, whose name he could not remember, pledged to hold consultations with their communities during a dialogue at Malacañang Monday afternoon.

“The MWSS official gave the assurance to me during our meeting,” Buendicho said over the phone Tuesday morning.

Buendicho said the meeting was arranged by the Archdiocese of Manila and was witnessed by Julio Labayen, former head of the Prelature of Infanta, and a Palace official whose identity he also could not recall.

“The meeting was scheduled for one hour only but it lasted two hours because of the seriousness of the discussion,” the tribe leader said.

The Laiban dam is a joint-venture project of the San Miguel Corporation and the MWSS. It is designed to divert water from two river systems in the Sierra Madre—Kaliwa and Kanan—to supply potable water to Metro Manila.

Buendicho said that during the dialogue, an official from the Archdiocese of Manila presented a petition letter to the MWSS official also voicing its opposition to the project.

“It means that the Manila archdiocese is also against the dam project contrary to the MWSS claim that the project intends to benefit its residents,” Buendicho said.

Close to 200 marchers—100 of whom are indigenous people—are now on the seventh day of their march to Malacañang, which they started last November 4 in General Nakar, Quezon, to protest the planned construction of the Laiban Dam.

Buendicho said that Tuesday’s leg of the trek started in Antipolo City and would end up in Miriam College in Quezon City, where the marchers planned to spend the night.

“We will continue with our protest march to Malacañang to convince President Arroyo to scrap the project,” he said.


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