STOP THE KALIWA LOW DAM PROJECT! PREVENT CRIMINAL MISCHIEF ON THE DUMAGAT-REMONTADOS LANDS

STOP THE KALIWA LOW DAM PROJECT! PREVENT CRIMINAL MISCHIEF ON THE DUMAGAT-REMONTADOS LANDS

Kaliwa Dam Project or the New Centennial Water Supply Project is a new water source to be constructed to meet the increasing demand of the people of Metro Manila, Rizal and Quezon (17.46M people o 3.49M household) by constructing another dam and to reduce total dependence on the Angat Dam.
We stand against the Kaliwa Dam Project because this project:
- Will affect the ancestral domains where 5,000 Dumagat-Remontados are situated;
- Is being expedited by the railroading of its legal process, particularly the right of the Dumagat-Remontados to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent process under IPRA;
- Will destroy the biodiversity and habitat of 126 species in 300 hectares of the Sierra Madre and endanger 100,000 residents downstream with the risk of massive flooding;
- Will entail an unnecessary 10.37 billion-peso loan from China, further worsening our debt-ridden economy;
- Will need every Filipino, including those outside Metro Manila, to shoulder the debt;
- Faces a short lifespan of 5-6 years due to the high rate of sedimentation in the area;
- Allows China to settle disputes on the project using their laws and on their territory;
- May cause our government to surrender Philippine territory to pay off the loan.
Our aim is to combat this highly detrimental and precarious operation which not only affects the landscape of the area but also the culture and livelihood of the indigenous tribes living in it. We shall instead advise and offer alternative solutions to those that have the power to hear us out, deliver, and at the very least, consider. But for that to happen, we'll need you, the reader, to sign this petition in hopes that they may no longer suppress the heed for help of the Dumagat-Remontados as well as many others that have lived long enough to foresee how this process brings more bad than good for us Filipinos. We must know when to humble ourselves and back down on an operation instead of pushing through blindly unknowingly setting aside and eventually taking no account of the repercussions that it brings.