The Chico River Dam Project was a proposed hydroelectric power generation project involving the Chico River on the island of Luzon in the Philippines that locals, notably the Kalinga people, resisted because of its threat to their residences, livelihood, and culture. [1] The project was shelved in the 1980s after public outrage in the wake of the murder of opposition leader Macli-ing Dulag. It is now considered a landmark case study concerning ancestral domain issues in the Philippines. [2] [3]
A situation report by Joanna Cariño, Jessica Cariño, and Geoffrey Nettleton for the 1979 National Convention of the Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao (UGAT), Inc. states that opposition for the Chico River Basin Development Project started as early as 1965, upon the initiation of survey work in affected areas. Locals were wary of the destructive implications of the project, having heard of or witnessed the devastating effects of the Binga and Ambuklao dams to the minorities of Benguet. [4] Earlier studies on the project, however, were not deemed feasible because of high estimated construction costs. [5] Activities under the project picked up pace in 1974, at a time when countries around the globe were reeling from the effects of the OPEC Oil Price Hike of 1973. Alternative sources of energy became highly desirable as the price of oil quadrupled. This led the government of President Ferdinand Marcos to tap the German firm Lahmeyer International in cooperation with the Engineering and Development Corporation of the Philippines to develop a technical feasibility study. The Marcos administration then sought funds from the World Bank in order to fund the project. [6] [1]
The plan involved the construction of four dams along the Chico River: [7]
The technical feasibility study was submitted by Lahmeyer in June 1973 without prior consultation with the indigenous population that was to be displaced by the project. Said population only learned of the study in 1974, when the Marcos government started conducting surveys in preparation for the construction of Chico Dams II and IV. [6]
Even if only Dam IV were built, the project's watershed would have encompassed the municipalities of Tinglayan, Lubuagan, Pasil, and parts of Tabuk in Kalinga Province, and the municipalities of Sabangan, Sagada, Sadanga, Bontoc, Bauko, and parts of Barlig in Mountain Province. Contemporary estimates suggest that the project would have displaced about 100,000 Kalingas and Bontoks. [8] In Kalinga, the barrios of Ableg, Cagaluan, Dupag, Tanglag, Dognac, and Mabongtot would be completely submerged. The Kalinga Apayao government estimated that more than 1000 families would be rendered homeless as a result, and P31,500,000 worth of farmlands would be lost. An additional P 38,250,000 worth of rice fields farmed by the residents of Bangad, Lubuagan, Dangtalan, Guinaang, and Naneng would also be flooded, even if the villages themselves would not be submerged. [6]
The Marcos government offered various financial incentives if the communities agreed to be relocated, but these overtures were rejected by the communities because of the significance of the lands to their religious beliefs and to the legal system that shaped the relationship of their tribes and communities to one another. [6]
The indigenous religious beliefs of the Kalinga place a strong emphasis on ancestor worship, [6] and because these ancestors were buried within the communities themselves, the communities were essentially sacred burial grounds. [6] Macli-ing Dulag, pangat (leader) of the Butbut people of Kalinga, is quoted by journalist Ma. Ceres Doyo expressing this sentiment:
...the question of the dam is more than political. The question is life—our Kalinga life. Apo Kabunian, the Lord of us all, gave us this land. It is sacred, nourished by our sweat. It shall become even more sacred when it is nourished by our blood. [9]
In addition, legal and tribal relationships among Kalinga communities are expressed in peace pacts called bodong, which together form a system of laws and agreements (pagta ti bodong) that are defined by each tribe's geographical territory. This entire system of laws and the social organization built around them would effectively be abolished if the communities are submerged or their populations relocated. [6]
In 1974, the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) began sending survey teams to the four dam sites, and opposition against the project began to mount. Macli-ing organized a bodong (peace council) in Barrio Tanglag in an attempt to rally opposition against the dam project.
In May 1975, 150 papangat or village elders and peace makers from Kalinga and Bontoc created the Bodong Federation, Inc., which intended to work against the four hydroelectric dams that would deluge many Kalinga villages, including sacred burial grounds and rice terraces. This was the first time the Bontoc and Kalinga joined intertribal forces and declared their preparedness for armed resistance to defend their ancestral territory. [10] Their plight was supported by many nongovernment organizations and religious groups such as the Episcopal Commission on Tribal Filipinos of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, which helped organize a conference involving 150 Bontoc and Kalinga leaders alongside church-based support groups, at St. Bridget's School in Quezon City. [9] The conference resulted in an agreement (Pagta ti Bodong) which formally united the Bontoc and Kalinga peoples in opposition against the Marcos dam project. [11] Various volunteers such as Catholic social worker Puri Pedro came to the areas resisting the project, in an effort to help by providing key social services in the community. [12]
These early opposition efforts forced the Marcos administration to temporarily pull the NAPOCOR survey teams out of the area in 1975.
Frustrated by the project delays caused by the opposition, Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree no. 848 in December 1975, constituting the municipalities of Lubuagan, Tinglayan, Tanudan, and Pasil into a "Kalinga Special Development Region" (KSDR), [13] in an effort to neutralize opposition to the Chico IV dam. [6]
With the Philippines formally under Martial Law from 1972 to 1981, areas affected by the dam project were easily militarized. [9] Aside from the Philippine Constabulary forces already assigned to the province, the 60th Philippine Constabulary Brigade, the 51st Philippine Constabulary Brigade, and the 44th Philippine Army Brigade were brought in to suppress opposition to the dam project. [6]
In 1977, numerous opposition leaders—including tribal leaders Lumbaya Aliga Gayudan, [14] Macli-ing Dulag, [9] and even a 12-year-old child [6] —were rounded up by these forces and incarcerated for up to two months.
Opposition leaders were undaunted, and more bodong peace pacts ceremonies were organized - including two of the largest bodong councils ever, in June 1978, and December 1979. The December 1979 bodong was attended by 2,000 Kalingas and Bontocs and saw Macli-ing Dulag officially designated as the official spokesperson for the opposition effort. [9]
On 24 April 1980, armed forces under the command of then-President Ferdinand Marcos—identified in the press as elements from 4th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army [15] —opened fire on Dulag at his home, killing him instantly.
Macli-ing Dulag's murder became a turning point in the history of Martial Law, because for the first time since the press crackdown during the declaration of Martial Law in 1972, the mainstream Philippine press confronted the issue of the Military's arrests of civilians under Martial Law. [16]
Macli-ing's murder unified the various peoples of the Cordillera Mountains against the proposed dam, causing both the World Bank and the Marcos regime to eventually abandon the project a few years after. [17]
The names of Macli-ing Dulag, Pedro Dungoc, and Ama Lumbaya Gayudan, fellow Kalinga leader of the opposition movement, have since been inscribed on the Wall of Remembrance of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes) in Quezon City, Metro Manila, which is dedicated to the martyrs and heroes who fought against the abuses that took place during the Philippines under the Marcos Martial Law era. [18] April 24, the date of Dulag's murder, is one of two dates observed annually as "Cordillera Day" in the Cordillera Administrative Region. [19]
A monument to honor Kalinga and Bontoc martyrs who fought against the Marcos dictatorship's dam projects was erected in 2017. [20] [21] The monument was built by indigenous communities on ancestral lands in Bugnay, Tinglayan. [22]
Mountain Province is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc.
Kalinga is a landlocked province in the Philippines situated within the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Tabuk and borders Mountain Province to the south, Abra to the west, Isabela to the east, Cagayan to the northeast, and Apayao to the north. Kalinga and Apayao are the result of the 1995 partitioning of the former province of Kalinga-Apayao which was seen to better service the respective needs of the various indigenous peoples in the area.
The Cordillera Administrative Region, also known as the Cordillera Region, or simply, Cordillera, is an administrative region in the Philippines, situated within the island of Luzon. It is the only landlocked region in the insular country, bordered by the Ilocos Region to the west and southwest, and by the Cagayan Valley Region to the north, east, and southeast. It is the least populous region in the Philippines, with a population less than that of the city of Manila.
The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera Mountain Range of northern Luzon, Philippines are often referred to using the exonym Igorot people, or more recently, as the Cordilleran peoples. There are nine main ethnolinguistic groups whose domains are in the Cordillera Mountain Range, altogether numbering about 1.5 million people in the early 21st century.
Bauko, officially the Municipality of Bauko is a 4th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 32,021 people.
Bontoc, officially the Municipality of Bontoc, is a 2nd class municipality and capital of the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 24,104 people.
Sabangan, officially the Municipality of Sabangan is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 9,621 people.
Sadanga, officially the Municipality of Sadanga is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 8,427 people. Sadanga boundaries both provinces are Abra to the northwest & west and Kalinga to the north & northeast.
Sagada, officially the Municipality of Sagada is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 11,510 people.
The Kalinga people are an indigenous ethnic group whose ancestral domain is in the Cordillera Mountain Range of the northern Philippines. They are mainly found in Kalinga province which has an area of 3,282.58 sq. km. Some of them, however, already migrated to Mountain Province, Apayao, Cagayan, and Abra. The Kalinga numbered 163,167 as of 2010.
Mount Binuluan is a remote volcano in the Kalinga province of the Cordillera Administrative Region of the Philippines. The 2,329-metre-high (7,641 ft) mountain is part of the Cordillera Central mountain range on Luzon island, the largest island in the country. Binuluan exhibits active volcanism through numerous fumarole fields, solfataras and hot springs on its slope. There were reports of possible eruptions in 1952 and 1986, but they are unverified.
Macli-ing Dulag was a pangat (leader) of the Butbut tribe of Kalinga province in the Philippines. He is best as one of the leaders of the opposition to the Chico River Dam Project, which led to his assassination by armed forces under the command of then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The Bantayog ng mga Bayani, sometimes simply referred to as the Bantayog, is a monument, museum, and historical research center in Quezon City, Philippines, which honors the martyrs and heroes of the struggle against the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
Antonio Ma. "Tony" Onrubia Nieva was a Philippine journalist, union organizer, and activist. He worked to defend press freedom and the rights of workers, and campaigned to end dictatorship in the Philippines. He led the National Press Club as president and founded the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. He was secretary general of the International Organization of Journalists based in Prague, Czech Republic, from 1995 up to the time of his death in 1997. His name is on the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Wall of Remembrance, for his contributions to the fight against injustices of the dictatorship under President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Religious sector opposition against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos included leaders and workers belonging to different beliefs and denominations.
The dictatorship of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s is historically remembered for its record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. Based on the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, and similar human rights monitoring entities, historians believe that the Marcos dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 77 'disappeared', and 70,000 incarcerations.
During the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, Filipino workers in the labor industry experienced the effects of government corruption, crony capitalism, and cheap labor for foreign transnational industries, One of the objectives of Martial Law was to cheapen labor costs, in order to attract transnational corporations to export labor to the Philippines. Marcos signed many presidential decrees beneficial only to his associates, while allowing for the forced relocation of indigenous peoples, decreasing workers' wages, and murders of labor activists. Minimum wage was a fixed PHP8.00 per day. Many workers were unemployed or underemployed. It was also during the Marcos presidency when the practice of contractualization began, enabling managements to avoid giving regular, permanent status to employees after six months of work. Strikes were banned and the government controlled trade unions, leaving workers without effective protection against employers who had unfair labor practices and regulations.
Purificacion Pedro, also known by her nickname as "Puri Pedro," was a Filipino social worker and Roman Catholic layperson who was killed by soldiers under the dictatorship of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos at the Bataan Provincial Hospital in 1977.
Indigenous people’s resistance against the Marcos dictatorship varied from case to case among the various indigenous peoples of the Philippines. The most documented cases are the various resistance movements towards the Marcos administration’s appropriation of indigenous lands, particularly in the case of the Chico River Dam Project and the Manila Water Supply III project on the Kaliwa River watershed, and the birth of the various separatist groups and their coalescing into the Moro conflict in the wake of news about the Jabidah Massacre.
Maria Ceres P. Doyo is a Filipino journalist, author, human rights activist, and feminist best known as a columnist and staff writer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, for her numerous books on Philippine journalism, and for the historical impact of her investigative reports during the martial law under Ferdinand Marcos.
