ANTIPOLO, Philippines — It has been eight days since Mimot Astoveza came down from her mountain village in General Nakar town and started the grueling walk from Quezon province to the nation’s capital.
But the 22-year-old indigenous Dumagat-Remontado youth said she does not feel exhausted, knowing that she and other indigenous peoples in Sierra Madre are fighting for their rights to preserve their land and culture.
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Astoveza lives in Makid-ata — one of the four communities that will be directly affected by the P12.2 billion-Kaliwa Dam. The dam, which will be funded by a loan from China, was a flagship project of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
The dam is expected to address Metro Manila’s water problems by supplying some 600 million liters a day to the capital region’s 14 million people.
But for the indigenous peoples of Rizal and Quezon, quenching Metro Manila’s thirst means submerging their ancestral domain, affecting their livelihoods and destroying their cultural heritage.
“Our ancestral land is our life, our home and our future,” Astoveza said on Wednesday. “Young people in our community have a responsibility to protect our land, and we will not be able to guard it if the dam is built.”
According to groups opposed to Kaliwa Dam, 1,400 Dumagat-Remontado families in Sierra Madre will be affected by the project. Government agencies, however, said that only 46 families will be impacted.
‘Nature is life’
Like other indigenous peoples, the Dumagat-Remontados of Sierra Madre are deeply connected with nature.
“We are shaped by the forest. Our traditions and beliefs are rooted in nature,” said the 21-year-old youth who goes by the nickname Boniknik.
Since the indigenous peoples are important stewards of the environment and its fast-depleting resources, it is not a surprise that the Dumagat-Remontados are staunch opponents of so-called development projects.
This was not the first time that they marched to voice out their opposition to a mega-dam project. In 2009, members of Dumagat-Remontado communities walked to the capital for nine days to protest the Laiban Dam project, which was conceived during the administration of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in the 1970s.
San Miguel Corporation submitted an unsolicited proposal to build the dam in 2009. But various groups — including indigenous peoples — strongly opposed the Laiban Dam, prompting the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System to shelve the project.
The victory, however, was short-lived. The project was revived during the Duterte administration, with the approval of a smaller Kaliwa Dam.
“The government was silent for some time. We didn’t know the replacement, the Kaliwa Dam, was moving forward,” community leader Conchita Calzado, who once joined the march against Laiban Dam and is now protesting against the Kaliwa Dam, said in a program held outside the Ateneo de Manila University.
“That’s why we are offering ourselves again, and we believe that what happened to the Laiban Dam can also happen to the Kaliwa Dam,” she added.
Continued resistance
As they descended from Antipolo to Metro Manila on Wednesday, Astoveza and Boniknik led the marchers, using a megaphone to tell the lowlanders about the importance of preserving Sierra Madre and their calls to halt the construction of Kaliwa Dam.
“If this project inside our ancestral domain continues, there’s a possibility that the Dumagat indigenous community and its cultural heritage will disappear. Nothing will shape us because all the teachings come from there,” Boniknik said.
Stressing that what they have is priceless, Boniknik said feels ashamed for Dumagat-Remontado leaders who gave their nod for the project to push through. Project proponent Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System awarded on Tuesday a “disturbance fee” of P160 million to a faction of Dumagat-Remontados who gave their consent for the dam project.
The march opposing the project may end on Thursday, as they head to the Malacañan in the hopes of having a dialogue with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and getting him to stop the dam’s construction.
But the fight may go beyond this week: Protesters vowed to remain in Metro Manila until Marcos gives a clear response to their concerns.
If authorities do not grant their plea, the young Dumagat-Remontados of Sierra Madre, just like the generations before them, will continue to resist.
“We will continue to protect our culture and land,” Astoveza said.