Petra Macliing is a Filipino anti-Chico dam activist, hailing from Bontoc, Mountain Province and best known as "Mother Petra". As a member of the Mainit tribe of Bontoc, [1] she joined the indigenous peoples of Bontoc and Kalinga in the fight to protect their "ili" (home village) against a World Bank funded dam project in the Philippines. [2] She is a founding member of Cordillera People's Alliance and leader of the Montañosa Women's Federation. She is also a member of the Kalinga-Bontoc Peace Pact Holders Association (KBPPHA) and the Cordillera Elders Alliance (CEA). She founded Mainit Ub-ubfo and the Maiinit Irrigators Association. [3]
Macliing was widowed at a young age, resulting in her having to raise eight children by herself. Macliing had seven daughters and one son, but her son passed away at a young age. [4] To support her family, Macliing worked as a farmer, sold saris and managing to send all of her daughters to college. Her youngest daughter, lawyer Francesca Macliing-Claver, recounted that she was only 3 months old when her father passed away. “My mother was the only parent I have ever known,” said Francesca. [4]
Mountain Province is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc while Bauko is the largest municipality. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as Mountain in some foreign references. The name is usually shortened by locals to Mt. Province.
Apayao, officially the Province of Apayao, is a landlocked province in the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Kabugao serves as its capital. The provincial capitol and its associated offices are located at the New Government Center in Luna.
Kalinga, officially the Province of 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 people in both provinces.
Kalinga-Apayao was a province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. It was formed, along with Benguet, Ifugao, and the new Mountain Province, from the earlier Mountain Province, with the passage of Republic Act No. 4695 in 1966. The said law was amended by RA No. 7878 in 1995, which divided the province into two new ones, Kalinga and Apayao.
The Cordillera Administrative Region, also known as the Cordillera Region and Cordillera, is an administrative region in the Philippines, situated within the island of Luzon. It is the only landlocked region in the archipelago, bordered by the Ilocos Region to the west and southwest, and by the Cagayan Valley Region to the north, east, and southeast.
The Cordillera Central or Cordillera Range is a massive mountain range 320 kilometres (200 mi) long north–south and 118 kilometres (73 mi) east-west situated in the north-central part of the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. The mountain range encompasses all provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region, as well as portions of eastern Ilocos Norte, eastern Ilocos Sur, eastern La Union, northeastern Pangasinan, western Nueva Vizcaya, and western Cagayan.
The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera in northern Luzon, Philippines, often referred to by the exonym Igorot people, or more recently, as the Cordilleran peoples, are an ethnic group composed of nine main ethnolinguistic groups whose domains are in the Cordillera Mountain Range, altogether numbering about 1.8 million people in the early 21st century.
Bauko, officially the Municipality of Bauko is a 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 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 municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 9,621 people.
Tabuk, officially the City of Tabuk, is a 5th class component city and capital of the province of Kalinga, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 121,033 people making it the most populous in the province.
The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are a World Heritage Site consisting of a complex of rice terraces on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. They were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995, the first-ever property to be included in the cultural landscape category of the World Heritage List. This inscription has five sites: the Batad Rice Terraces and Bangaan Rice Terraces, Mayoyao Rice Terraces, Hungduan Rice Terraces and Nagacadan Rice Terraces, all in Ifugao Province. The Ifugao Rice Terraces reach a higher altitude and were built on steeper slopes than many other terraces. The Ifugao complex of stone or mud walls and the careful carving of the natural contours of hills and mountains combine to make terraced pond fields, coupled with the development of intricate irrigation systems, harvesting water from the forests of the mountain tops, and an elaborate farming system.
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.
The Chico River, is a river system in the Philippines in the island of Luzon, encompassing the regions of Cordillera and Cagayan Valley. It is the longest tributary of the Cagayan River with a total length of 233 km (145 mi).
The Bontoc ethnolinguistic group can be found in the central and eastern portions of Mountain Province, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Although some Bontocs of Natonin and Paracelis identify themselves as Balangaos, Gaddangs or Kalingas, the term "Bontoc" is used by linguists and anthropologists to distinguish speakers of the Bontoc language from neighboring ethnolinguistic groups. They formerly practiced head-hunting and had distinctive body tattoos.
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. 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.
The Cordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA) was a militant organization based in the Cordillera region in the Philippines founded by Conrado Balweg.
Macli-ing Dulag (customarily referred to by his first name, also spelled Macliing or Macli'ing was a pangat of the Butbut tribe of Kalinga province in the Philippines. He is best known 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-president Ferdinand Marcos.
Joan Carling is an indigenous Filipino human rights activist and environmentalist who has defended the rights of native and marginalized peoples for over two decades. She has served as Secretary General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and has chaired the Cordillera People's Alliance in the Philippines. Carling has also contributed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and REDD+ activities and has served as a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFii). In September 2018 she received the Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Nations Environment Programme in recognition of her work as an environmentalist and a defender of human rights.
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.