Two years ago, UGAT joined various sectors in calling for the cessation and revocation of the destructive Kaliwa Dam Project, pointing out its ecological, economic, and socio-cultural damage, particularly to the indigenous Dumagat and Remontado communities living in the Sierra Madre. Aside from voicing concerns specifically about the harms of Kailwa Dam, we took issue with an overall paradigm of development that favors infrastructure, resource-extractive  projects at the expense of the environment and the people.

 

Today, we lament that despite the numerous objections to this project on scientific, economic, environment, and human rights grounds, this project has been allowed to proceed, alongside other projects that follow the same misguided approach to development.

 

Underscoring what’s at stake in this project, members of the Dumagat and Remontado communities who are being directly affected by the Kaliwa Dam project, as well as their partners, are now marching to Malacañang to demonstrate their objections and to remonstrate against the loss of livelihood that they face as a consequence of this project.

 

Their cry must not go unheeded, neither by the government nor by our society.

 

To reiterate what we stated in our earlier statement, we do not oppose efforts to secure water for our cities and communities. However, we join the insistence of our indigenous communities  that this be done in a way that respects their rights and protects the environment. As they themselves eloquently put it in an open letter to President Marcos Jr:

 

Naiintindihan naming kailangang may mapagkukunan ng tubig-inumin ang 14 na milyong mga naninirahan sa Kamaynilaan. Wala pong problemang gamitin ang tubig ng Kaliwa River. Huwag lang pong sirain ang aming pamayanan, kabuhayan, sakahan, pangisdaan, kabundukan, sagradong lugar, at kultura. Huwag din pong ilagay sa panganib ang libu-libong pamilya sa ibaba, ang samu’t saring buhay sa kabundukan at ilog at ibaon ang bansa sa utang.

 

As anthropologists of the Filipino people, we reaffirm our solidarity with the indigenous Dumagat and Remontado communities and echo their call to discontinue and revoke the Kaliwa Dam Project.