ILOILO CITY—Amid the din of the crowd that gathered at the town plaza in Calinog, Iloilo, on Tuesday, the voices of women belonging to one of Western Visayas’s tribes, Panay-Bukidnon, rose above everyone else.
Their resentment and bitterness was easily detectable in their impassioned speeches as they tried to outdo each other in venting their grievances, some of them almost screaming before local officials present.
The Panay-Bukidnon tribesmen’s complaint stemmed from what they perceive as a deliberate ploy to leave them out of negotiations that tackle how natives should benefit once structural works on the Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Reservoir Dam Project, probably the country’s most expensive water reservoir outside of Luzon at P11 billion, goes full swing tentatively in the first quarter of 2015.
“We are the real natives here,” they contend, “but why is it that our tribal leaders were not fully consulted on matters concerning relocation and provisions on livelihood since our ancestral lands lie exactly on the project plan’s path? Once water sweeps into our villages, we lose everything—our homes, income, ancestors entombed for centuries and memories.”
Cynthia Deduro, executive director of the Panay-Guimaras Indigenous People’s Network, an organization working for the protection and preservation of culture and interest of the Tumandok tribe in Panay and Guimaras, echoed the sentiment of the Panay-Bukidnon tribe.
She lamented that the natives of Calinog have not been sufficiently informed on the project’s pros and cons necessary for their concurrence.
The P11.2-billion dam project is designed to provide not only irrigation water but also electricity and water supply services to far-flung areas in Iloilo.
A pet project of Senate President Franklin Drilon, the initial funding of the project came from the Disbursement Acceleration Program funds that were released to Drilon by the Department of Budget and Management headed by Secretary Florencio B. Abad. PNA