By KIMBELRIE QUITASOL
www.nordis.net
BAGUIO CITY— Isnag folk from barangays Lenneng and Poblacion slapped National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) Cordillera and Kabugao town officials with over 200 counts of criminal and administrative complaints, accusing them of manipulating the free prior and informed consent (FPIC) process in favor of Pan Pacific Renewable Power Philippines Corporation (PPRPC) for its 150 megawatts Gened 1 Hydroelectric Power Project (HEPP) along the Apayao-Abulog River.
The complainants filed the charges in batches. The most recent was the administrative and corrupt practices complaint that Barangay Poblacion folk filed before the Ombudsman on January 25. earlier, On January 19, They filed 54 counts of estafa, falsification, and use of falsified documents at the Kabugao prosecutors’ office.
Among those accused are NCIP Acting Regional Director Atanacio Addog, NCIP Provincial Officer Agnes Gabuat, NCIP Apayao Provincial Legal Officer Geoffrey Calderon, Acting Head of NCIP Kabugao Jezryl Inopia, the NCIP Apayao FPIC team. They also included in the complaint Kabugao Vice Mayor Fabulous Tucjang and Kabugao Indigenous People Mandatory Representative John Anthony Amid, and several private individuals.
Much earlier, on December 28, Barangay Lenneng folk filed administrative and corrupt practices complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman against the said NCIP and Kabugao officials. They also filed 104 counts of the same complaint against the same officials at the Kabugao prosecutors’ office on January 6.
In a press conference on January 24, lawyer Kurdel Paroy, one of the lawyers handling the cases, said the complaints stemmed from alleged fraud in the FPIC process.
He explained that the cases filed at the Kabugao prosecutors’ office are criminal complaints for forgery of signatures and falsification of documents. Meanwhile, those submitted before the Ombudsman are administrative cases against the said officials for reneging on their responsibility to protect the rights of the Kabugao indigenous people.
In their affidavits, Barangays Lenneng and Poblacion complainants said they never signed a community resolution dated December 23, 2019, authorizing several individuals to negotiate and sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with PPRPC for the Gened 1 Dam Project. Residents of the affected barangays have earlier raised the issue of forged signatures after Kabugao Youth released a copy of the MOA on their Facebook page.
A MOA outlining the shares from profits, other benefits, remediation on the project’s possible impact, and other community demands the company would agree to provide is part of the FPIC process.
“We are just scratching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the legal battle because the first two cases are not even a question whether the dam should be built or not, it is merely a question whether the community resolution was duly acquired,” Paroy said.
The lawyer added that other barangays of Kabugao affected by the Gened dams project are also set to file similar cases against the same officials and individuals. He said that nine of the 21 barangays of Kabugao are directly affected by the dam project.
Dead people’s signature
In their joint affidavit, complainants from Lennneng said that names of even dead residents were in the resolution. They noted the names of the deceased Ernesto Talatag, Elizabeth Lappas, and Julio Bidoc, whose names and alleged signatures appeared on the document.
The complainants also cited several individuals, who used thumb marks as signatures, were made to appear that they signed the resolution. There were also repeated names “to make it appear that there were plenty of signatories in that falsified Community Resolution.”
Meanwhile, members of the Council of Elders from Poblacion also denied signing the MOA with PPRPC in their joint affidavit. The elders executed and submitted their affidavits repudiating their alleged signatures in the document to the NCIP Service Center in Kabugao in April 2021.
Other signatories also denied reading and signing the December 2019 community resolution and affirmed their opposition to the project.
NCIP’s Regional Review Team (RRT) noted similar observations in their reports on the Gened 1 FPIC process. They also mentioned several irregularities, such as holding FPIC activities outside the ancestral domain, the presence of PPRPPC personnel during the decision-making activities, and failure to faithfully observe and apply the consensus-building processes as documented by the FPIC team.
Despite these red flags raised by the RRT, then-NCIP Regional Director Marlon Bosantog endorsed the documents to the Commission En Banc for deliberation.
Nordis reached out to NCIP Acting Regional Director Addog but has not received a response.
More projects underway
As of September 2022, PPRPC holds nine hydropower contracts in Apayao awarded by the Department of Energy.
Other hydroelectric power projects include the 250 MW Gened 2, 55 MW Madduang, and 40 MW Sicapo in Kabugao. 30 MW Calanasan 1, 220 MW Calanasan 2 , and 50 MW Tabayagan in Calansan, and the 90 MW Maton in Pudtol.
Gened 1 Dam alone will submerge eight barangays in Kabugao alone. It will displace around 898 households inhabited by approximately 4,676 Isnags based on the 2015 census. The dam would also submerge 42 homes of 188 Isnags in Pudtol town.
The FPIC process for Gened 1 started in 2017 and culminated on August 13, 2021, when the NCIP Commission En Banc verbally approved its Certification Precondition. The Isnag people filed a motion for reconsideration on August 27, 2021.
The FPIC process for Gened 2 commenced in December 2021. The NCIP released the Certification Precondition for Gened 2 in March 2022. The Isnag people filed a motion for reconsideration on March 31, 2022.
The office has yet to resolve the two motions.
NCIP issues a Certification Precondition to companies applying for projects within ancestral domains after securing free prior and informed consent from indigenous people in the area. # nordis.net
