Dammed if they do

Pan Pacific’s Geneds

Gened-1, originally awarded as the 600MW Apayao-Abulog Hydroelectric Power Project, is one of the first of eight hydroelectric power plants awarded to Pan Pacific Renewable Power Phils. Corp. (PPRPPC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the investment company FPSP (Holdings) Corp., lists businessman Francis C. Chua as the owner, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents.

Its President, Thunderbird Resorts and Casinos owner Allee Lourdes Sun, also sits on the board of FPSP (Holdings) Corp.

Chua is the current Chairman of the Bank of Commerce, an affiliate of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), and serves on the board of directors of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), among other business affiliations. FPSP (Holdings) Corp. is not publicly known as one of Chua’s companies.

However, being both the owner of a power generation company and an official of the NGCP poses a conflict of interest. Section 45 of Republic Act No. 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), prohibits cross-ownership between power generation and distribution companies, and the state-owned National Transmission Corporation (TRANSCO), including its concessionaires. The NGCP, as TRANSCO’s concessionaire, operates the country’s power transmission network.

The Hydroelectric Power Projects (HEPP) by PPRPPC were among the several deals that then-president Rodrigo Duterte brought home from his first state visit to China in October 2016.

During that trip, Pan Pacific officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Gao Yingxin, Vice President of the state-owned Bank of China (BOC), for a "bank-enterprise cooperation" at BOC's headquarters in Beijing, China. The agreement aligns with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to promote trade and fund infrastructure projects.

PPRPPC was registered in 2010 with an initial Php10 million capital stock and now has almost Php1 billion in assets according to its financial statement submitted this year.

The DOE stated that it welcomes all private corporations bidding for energy projects, even those without a reputable track record, as long as they are financially capable and meet the requirements.

All of PPRPPC’s projects will be built on ancestral lands and must go through the FPIC process to secure the consent of the affected Indigenous communities.

PPRPPC’s original service contract for Gened-1 was for a 600 MW hydropower electric power plant (HEPP), based on the National Power Corporation’s (NAPOCOR) 1987 study funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on hydropower potentials in Luzon, which identified theApayao-Abulug River as a potential site for a 600 MW hydropower project.

However, the project’s contracts were amended to lower the capacity of the power plants reducing Gened-1 to 150 MW and amending Gened-2 from 50 MW to 250 MW.

Based on Gened-2’s EIS, “due to social and environmental issues, Pan Pacific decided to redesign the hydropower potential by [a] cascade of two plants, the downstream located Gened-1 HPP and the upstream located Gened-2 HPP.”

Gened-1 and 2 had secured their Certification Precondition (CP), a document issued by the NCIP certifying that the company underwent the FPIC process and received the concerned Indigenous community’s consent.

However, members of the community are contesting the CP for the projects citing that the NCIP failed to go through the proper process in obtaining the document.

According to an NCIP official who requested anonymity, before the Commission approved the CP, all issues and concerns relating to the CP application for Gened-1 and 2, which were subject to the CEB's deliberation, were raised and discussed during the deliberation.

“During the deliberation of this specific application, the concerned FPIC team presented the process that was undertaken, along with all their documents to support that the community had given their FPIC for the project. With that, based on the CEB's appreciation and deliberation, they approved the CP,” the NCIP official said.

Two other PPRPPC projects, Calanasan 1 and 2 HEPP, are now undergoing the FPIC process according to the regional office of NCIP in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

In Kabugao town, where four of the nine dams are set to be built, around 90% of the population belongs to the Indigenous Isnag community.

 

Meanwhile, the NCIP regional office in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), the government agency assigned to facilitate the FPIC process, is giving the renewable energy projects their full support.

 “We are aligned with the government, of course, because of our lack of energy projects. And there are potentials here in the Cordillera, especially with hydro projects. As for us, we ensure that these projects will go through the process of FPIC," said NCIP CAR Regional Director Atty. Roland Calde in an interview.

According to Beverly Longid of the Indigenous people’s group Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu), dams are among the most destructive energy projects, having displaced Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands, particularly in the Cordillera region.

She cited the displacement of Indigenous communities from Benguet province when the Ambuklao and Binga dams were constructed in the 1950s. The displaced Indigenous people were forced to relocate to Nueva Vizcaya province and some to as far as Palawan in the central Philippines.

“Since the Indigenous people will be displaced from their ancestral lands, it [the displacement] will have a direct impact on their way of life as indigenous people,” Longid said. “Our customs, traditions, and culture are rooted in our relationship with the land. Ultimately, this will lead to widespread poverty, and an increase in the number of people without land.”

Displacement of homes and livelihood

In Kabugao town alone, half of its population will be directly affected if these dams are constructed. This means that around 8,000 of Kabugao’s residents will either be displaced from their homes, lose their livelihood, or will experience worsening flooding during the rainy season.

However, information from the DOE’s Renewable Energy Management Bureau and the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau regarding the exact locations, affected communities, status, and other relevant details about the six dams in Apayao is not available, despite Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted to these agencies.

In the contested Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Isnag Indigenous Cultural Community and PPRPPC for the Gened-1 dam, the company identified 277 households in Kabugao that will be displaced. Meanwhile, in Gened-2’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), PPRPPC identified 86 houses that will be affected but did not identify how many families will be displaced.

The Gened-1 MOA and Gened-2’s EIS identified more than 260 hectares of agricultural land that the dams will directly affect.

During the 2nd Community Consultative Assembly for Gened-1, held on April 28, 2017, Jimmy Salman, a representative of PPRPPC, said that the provincial government will be responsible for planning the layout, locations, and infrastructure of the resettlement area.

In an interview, Kabugao Vice Mayor Fabulous Tucjang said that while households facing displacement are planned to be relocated within village areas that will not be submerged and compensation will be provided for affected properties and agricultural lands, concrete plans to ensure the implementation of these measures have yet to be presented.

Livelihood programs, such as providing a fishpond area within the reservoir, are also mentioned but lack detailed planning.

However, in Sitio Nacagman in Madatag village where the Gened-2 dam will be constructed, residents oppose the construction of the dam, according to Romeo Allong, their pangat or community elder.

Allong, 62, said that all villagers did not consent to the dam as it would wipe out their village, nearby agricultural lands, and burial grounds. Allong’s family has lived for 10 generations in the mountainous area and relies on the upland rice, corn, and vegetable harvest from their kaingin (slash-and-burn farming) and other bounties from the forest like honey from bees which they sell for their daily needs and other expenses.

He added that even if some areas are not submerged, they have been informed that traditional slash-and-burn farming near the watershed area will be prohibited.

Romeo Dicray, 62, the village chief of Madatag, echoed this sentiment regarding the loss of homes and livelihoods in their village.

He narrated that in one of the assemblies for the Gened-2 that he was able to attend, the proponents were asked what jobs would be given to them if their farmlands were submerged and kaingin would not be allowed around the watershed area. They were not given a definite answer.

 “They said we’ll be employed. But how can most of us be employed when we did not finish school? Employed where? They said in construction. But after the construction is done, what will the people do? Then, nothing,” Dicray lamented.

In a separate phone interview, Dicray confirmed that he, along with many of his constituents, did not sign any resolution giving consent to the project.

“We did not sign anything agreeing to the project, they just did it among themselves,” Dicray said, referring to the former village chief of Madatag, Castor Padeway.

John Anthony Amid, Provincial Indigenous People Mandatory Representative (IPMR) of Apayao, disagrees with the sentiments of locals about their kaingin. He believes that building the dams will bring progress to the province.

Dicray questioned why their community needed to be sacrificed for the sake of progress and expressed concern about the government's promise that no one would be left behind.

LiCAS News tried to reach out to PPRPPC multiple times, but they declined to be interviewed.

The dams planned along the Apayao-Abulog River will cascade from Calansan 1 and 2 to Gened-2, and then down to Gened-1. However, there is currently no available information regarding the exact locations of the remaining four dams.

 

The company identified 10 villages in Kabugao town (Waga, Bulu, Magabata, Luttuacan, Poblacion, Laco, Cabetayan, Madatag, Dibagat, and Tuyangan) and 1 in Pudtol (Lt. Balag) that will be directly affected by Gened-1 and 2. This will mean that some areas of the villages will be submerged, including settlements and farmlands, or some areas will be cleared to construct access roads, contractor’s site, diversion tunnel, dam site, and powerhouse among others.

In the coming years, the river where Monique and Princess once played will be too deep to enjoy, and the home they grew up in will be submerged if the Gened-2 dam project near their community proceeds, leaving them uncertain about their future.

This story was made possible by a grant from Internews’ Earth Journalism network through the Asian Center for Journalism
at the Ateneo de Manila.

With generous support from
Aid to the Church in Need
missio Aachen
Pontifical Society of the Propagation of the Faith

Text and photos by Chantal Eco

Produced by June Nattha Nuchsuwan

Published October 21, 2024

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