NCIP grilled over questionable negotiations for Kaliwa Dam project

A committee at the House of Representatives on Tuesday questioned the negotiations being facilitated by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for the controversial Kaliwa Dam.

This comes as the Committee on Indigenous Cultural Communities and Indigenous Peoples conducted its second inquiry into the alleged anomalous project.

Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate slammed the NCIP for pushing through with the negotiations for the memorandum of agreement (MOA) despite the non-consent of the affected indigenous peoples (IPs), particularly in the provinces of Rizal and Quezon.

“Madam Chair, this is only the second hearing of this committee, [but] we already saw how divided the communities are,” Zarate said. “Why are they continuously proceeding with the negotiations? What are they after?”

The NCIP claimed that the procedure was based on their guidelines, and that it “did not receive a non-consent from the IPs,” giving it the “basis to proceed.”

Kakay Tolentino, a member of the semi-nomadic, indigenous Dumagat people, said there was never a “consensus,” and that their community has not given its free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC).

At least 90 percent of the IPs are against the project, she added.

Agta-Dumagat leader Marcelino had said that only one of six tribes had given its FPIC to the Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS) in exchange for money estimated at ₱20 million.