TAYABAS, Quezon—Groups of indigenous peoples who will be affected by the planned construction of three projects in Northern Quezon are set to march to Malacañang starting on November  4 to appeal to President Arroyo to scrap one of the projects.

Tribal leaders met with members of the media last week to announce their planned action against the proposed construction of the huge Laiban Dam project in the Kaliwa River in Tanay, Rizal.

The indigenous groups are also against the construction of a hydropower project and a manganese mining operation within their ancestral settlements in the Real, Infanta and General Nakar (Reina) areas.  The multisectoral march to Malacañang will start from Infanta, Quezon; and will pass Famy and Siniloan in Laguna; Tanay and Baras in Rizal; and Antipolo before proceeding to Malacañang.  The march is expected to last from seven to eight days.

Ramcy Astobeza, executive director of the Tribal Center for Development based in Infanta town, said 16 tribal settlements in 19 barangays in the Reina area will be adversely affected by the construction of the Laiban Dam project. 

“We are firmly opposed to the Laiban Dam project, which is being planned without consulting us.  We are afraid that the 2004 landslides and floods that killed hundreds of us in the Reina areas will happen again,” Astobeza said in Filipino before the regular session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) last week.

They said they are expecting Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca and mayors from the Reina areas, Tanay, Antipolo and some Church, nongovernment-group and civic leaders to swell their ranks in their march to Malacañang against the proposed Laiban Dam.

Astobeza and other tribal leaders, including Julieto America, Celso Francia and Alberto Ungriano, have sought the assistance of Second District board member Vicente Alcala in soliciting the SP’s support to stop the proposed Laiban Dam project at the Kaliwa River, the hydroelectric power project at the Kanan River, both in Tanay, Rizal; and the manganese mining operation in Lomotan, General Nakar.

The tribal leaders said that food-and-beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System are the proponents of the $2-billion dam project designed to supply water for Metro Manila; while the manganese mining operation is allegedly being undertaken by a certain businessman named Romeo Roxas.

“It would be better if Gov. [Rafael] Nantes supports us in this campaign opposing the Laiban Dam project,” Alcala told the media.

The National Economic and Development Authority has allegedly approved the Laiban Dam project and there will be a signing of a memorandum of agreement this month.

Alcala asked his fellow SP members to look into these three interconnected projects in the Reina areas and support the drive to stop them for the sake of the lives and safety of the residents in Northern Quezon.

“The dam project threatens our livelihood and our lives, and the Reina areas risk being wiped out from the map if a natural calamity like what happened in 2004 would hit us again,” Ungriano, president of the Kalipunan ng mga Samahang Katutubo sa Hilagang Quezon, told mediamen in a press conference held at the residence of Alcala after the SP session.

America, head of the Infanta cluster of Task Force Sierra Madre, said that seven barangays in Tanay, Rizal, and Lomotan in General Nakar totaling about 28,000 hectares of land and 4,500 families will be affected by the construction of the Laiban Dam project.

He said the Sangguniang Bayan of Real and Infanta have both passed resolutions opposing the construction of Laiban Dam while that of General Nakar has given authority to Mayor Ruzol on the hydroelectric project.

His colleagues, Fourth District board member Manuel Butardo and First District board member Alona Obispo, expressed dismay and surprise that such giant projects are being planned without their knowledge.

The controversial projects were referred to the SP committee on environment for study and investigation.