CORDILLERA ORGANIZATIONS PICKET NCIP AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES FOR FPIC VIOLATIONS IN THE CHICO RIVER PUMP IRRIGATION PROJECT

May 7, 2019

Baguio City – Representatives of various organizations led by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) held a protest action today against the anomalous Chico River Pump Irrigation Project (CRPIP), which violated the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the affected indigenous communities in Barangays Katabbogan and Pinococ, Pinukpuk, Kalinga.

The protest was held in front of the Regional Development Council – National Economic and Development Administration (RDC-NEDA) regional office during the meeting of the RDC-NEDA, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), National Irrigation Authority – Region 2 (NIA-RO2), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) – Region 2 to discuss issues on the CRPIP.

According to Windel Bolinget, CPA Chairperson, “Contrary to the claim of the NCIP, there is no FPIC for the project. Even the process to acquire FPIC in accordance with the 2012 FPIC Guidelines was not completed since no Certificate of Precondition has been issued. The consultation meetings and the Memorandum of Agreement between NIA-R02 and communities in the affected ancestral domains were only part of the FPIC process and do not already mean FPIC.”

“The concept of FPIC was manipulated. FPIC was not secured prior to the signing of the loan agreement and the construction of the project. The fact that the affected communities were not aware of the provisions of the loan agreement, including the Chinese contractor and Chinese workers that will implement the project, also entail the lack of full disclosure of information about the project,” added Bolinget.

The CPA also criticizes NIA-R02 on its actions that further manipulated the FPIC. “NIA has negotiated with landowners to allow project construction and disturbances within their private lands in exchange for compensation. It made the affected landowners sign a document called ‘The Individual Right of Way Permit to Enter and Construct’ as a go signal for the construction. This was the ‘consent’ that became the basis for NIA to start its earth moving activities. These are outright violations of FPIC. Applicants for FPIC should not be interfering in FPIC processes and dealing with individual landowners. FPIC is a collective right of indigenous peoples, which encompasses all affected indigenous peoples in ancestral domains,” said Bolinget.

“At this stage, even if NCIP issues a Certificate of Precondition to NIA-R02, it is moot and academic since the project construction has already started since June 2018. If NCIP was sincere in implementing the FPIC process, it should have prevented the start of the project construction while the FPIC process was still ongoing. We challenge the NCIP to put a stop to the project now since the peoples’ right to FPIC has been violated and also due to the onerous and anomalous contents of the loan agreement,” said Bolinget.

“At this stage, even if NCIP issues a Certificate of Precondition to NIA-R02, it is moot and academic since the project construction has already started since June 2018. If NCIP was sincere in implementing the FPIC process, it should have prevented the start of the project construction while the FPIC process was still ongoing. We challenge the NCIP to put a stop to the project now since the peoples’ right to FPIC has been violated and also due to the onerous and anomalous contents of the loan agreement,” said Bolinget.

Further, CPA assails the unconstitutionality of the CRPIP loan agreement, which were elaborated in a petition filed at the Supreme Court by Neri Colmenares and the Makabayan bloc last April 4:

• The Confidentiality Clause in the loan agreement violates the right to information of the Filipino people on foreign loans contracted by the government.
• The 1987 Constitution provides that the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas should approve foreign loans prior to the signing of loan agreements. But in the CRPIP, the Monetary Board gave its approval on May 17, 2019, more than one month after the loan agreement was signed. China demanded that payment should be included in the General Appropriations Law, which practically usurped the constitutional power of Congress to solely decide the content of the country’s yearly budget. Another provision which can prohibit the Philippine Congress from questioning the constitutionality of the loan agreement is Annex 6 of the agreement, where China demanded the Philippine Department of Justice secretary to issue a certification that the agreement is legal and constitutional.
• Awarding the project to a Chinese construction company was against the country’s procurement laws and the Filipino First Policy as enshrined in the Constitution.
• The loan agreement has subjected the project to Chinese arbitration tribunal officiated by Chinese arbitrators using Chinese laws.
• The loan agreement also surrenders our country’s patrimonial assets to China as expressed in a waiver of immunity

“The onerous loan agreement clearly favors only China. It is a sell-out of Cordillera land and resources and the country’s sovereignty, and gives super profit to China at the expense of the Filipino masses that will bear the burden of paying the loan. The project employed Chinese workers while many Filipinos are jobless and capable of the work required by the project. This is but another manifestation of China’s imperialist aggression in the Philippines, which puts at risk the interests of the Filipino people under the guise of irrigation project,” said Bolinget.

“The communities affected by the project are in dire need of free irrigation and appropriate irrigation systems. We want free irrigation for our farmers and will continue to demand for it. But this must not be given at the cost of a debt trap for the Filipino people. Under the onerous loan agreement, the CRPIP will not provide ‘free’ irrigation since this will be paid back by the Filipino people in unfairly huge sums and costs,” added Bolinget.

Reference:

Windel Bolinget
Chairperson, CPA
Myra dela Cruz
Cordillera Human Rights Alliance

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