On Dumagat Day, tribes vow continuing resistance to Kaliwa dam project

On Dumagat Day, tribes vow continuing resistance to Kaliwa dam project

AGOS RIVER, INFANTA, QUEZON–Indigenous people of Rizal marked the Dumagat Day last week with the theme, “Advance the unity in the defense of the environment and strengthen the movement that promotes the right to ancestral lands and self-determination of Indigenous Dumagat and Remontado!”

Dumagat and Remontado tribes renewed their commitment in opposing the Kaliwa-Kanan-Laiban Dam or the New Centennial Water Source project, a priority project of the Duterte administration that will inundate more than 300 hectares of forests and communities in Sierra Madre mountain ranges.

The Dumagat and Remontado tribes have been fighting against the dam project for the past four decades. In 2001, one of their leaders was killed by suspected state agents.

Elements of the 85th Infantry Battalion under the 2nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army have frequentd the areas covered by the project. Miling dela Cruz, a local leader in Tanay, Rizal, said soldiers threatened those who wanted to participate in the Dumagat Day.

(Read story…)