IP group fears China-funded project might flood farms, villages in Kalinga

April 28, 2018 Provincial

BAGUIO CITY – An indigenous peoples group in Kalinga reiterated fears of environmental destruction and economic dislocation due to the China-funded P3.135 billion (US$62.09 million) Chico River Pump Irrigation Project in Kalinga, which might even become a flashpoint of tribal animosities against the government.
Belying Kalinga lawmaker Allen Jessie Mangaoang’s assurances that the project, which the IP group believes is a “dam project”, Kalinga leader Juan Dammay, a native of Basao, Tinglayan and chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance-Kalinga, reiterated that the project will submerge indigenous villages and vast rice and corn farmlands in Pinukpuk town. 
President Rodrigo Duterte secured the project during his April 10 visit to China. Last March, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) signed a P4.3-B contract with China CAMC Engineering Co., Ltd for the Chico River PIP.
According to the Department of Finance, the interest rate on the US Dollar denominated loan is 2% per annum with a maturity period of 20 years including a seven-year grace period.
Rice and corn farmlands in barangay Sucbot, Pinukpuk all the way to its boundaries with Tabuk City will be under water, vowed Dammay, also a board member of an irrigators cooperative.
According to Mangaoang, the planned irrigation project will be built in Pinukpuk, Kalinga, which will irrigate at least 4,000 hectares of farmlands downstream Cagayan province.
The irrigation, Mangaoang hopes, would spill over to Rizal, Kalinga and then to Sta. Maria, Isabela, Enrile and Tu-ao and other towns in Cagayan.
The World Bank-funded Chico River Basin Multi-purpose Dam project in the 1970’s forced Kalinga villagers to rise up and take arms against the Marcos regime.
Dammay warned there might just be a repeat of the 1970’s armed uprising because the Chinese-funded irrigation project would flood their villages and farmlands.  Even a small dam where the project is being proposed, the Kalinga leader warned, would cause flooding and massive siltation because the river terrain of the area where it is proposed is more or less flat. ”Even during strong typhoons, river water almost is stagnant because it is flat,” he explained in Iluko dialect.
Villagers also have not been asked of their take on the project, Dammay continued, blaming some government agencies of possibly faking local project endorsements from farmers groups and indigenous communities.
Dammay led a delegation of Kalinga elders and leaders in the annual Cordillera Day, celebrated every April 24, to commemorate the death of Macli-ing Dulag who was killed by government forces in 1980 where it traces its roots to the uprising along the Chico River.
Dulag was a Kalinga “pangat” (peace pact holder) who led tribal folk against the foiled Chico dams project in the 70s. ACE ALEGRE / ABN