BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Opposition to a dam project, most of them from among the Isnag indigenous people of Apayao, have declared top officials of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples - Cordillera top and the dam builder "unwanted and unwelcome" in their ancestral lands.
Isnag leaders and elders fumed against NCIP Regional Director Marlon Bosantog and Free and Prior Informed Consent officer Atanacio Addog, both lawyers, for allegedly favoring Pan Pacific Renewable Power Philippines Corp. (PPRPPC), which plans to build the 150-megawatt Gened Dam 1 in Kabugao, Apayao.
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In Community Resolution No. 2, series of 2021, some 104 Isnag elders and leaders declared the two officials and Pan Pacific "persona non grata" over the dam project, which the community said would inundate their land.
The IPs are also urging the local government of Kabugao to pass a similar resolution.
They said that despite the IP community's rejection of the mega-dam project during FPIC meetings conducted by NCIP with the Kabugao people in 2017, the commission came up with a Memorandum of Agreement between the IPs and Pan Pacific anyway.
The IPs alleged that Bosantog and Addog forged community resolutions supposedly approving the project. The two officials and Pan Pacific, they claimed, also made documents "authorizing" selected IPs to represent the Isnags in entering such agreements.
Copies of the resolution were forwarded to the NCIP national office as well to the local governments of Kabugao and Apayao province, the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Human Rights.
Bosantog said, however, that "it was not the legitimate and recognized elders and leaders who made (the persona non grata declaration), nor [was it done] with the concurrence of the LGU."
He also said that "almost 100% of all barangays leaders of Kabugao, through their barangay captains and [Indigenous People Mandatory Representative] endorsed the project" and that it is backed by the Sanguniang Panlalawigan and other local officials.
He added that during the consent process, 580 out 625 elders and leaders, the decision-makers in Isnag culture, gave consent to the project.
"I will continue to respect the stand of those whose oppose the hydropower project, but the decision remains with the elders and leaders of Kabugao and Pudtol, not NCIP," he said.