Mark Vincent Rei Villacruz

STEM I - Jeruel

“Mga kapatid, mayroon tayong mas malaking kaaway kaysa mga Amerikano.
Ang ating sarili.” As said by our lunatic hero, General Antonio Luna, a pitch-perfect, a
fitting words we can use to summarize what has been happening on our country, with
Americans out and Chinese intruding our backyards; and for whatever reason it may be,
may be it is for the country’s sake or a self fulfillment, a History will be written once
again, a history of despair maybe or a history of wisdom, a rewrite from our mistakes in
the past maybe or just another reenactment of it.
A project that has been proposed by the Japanese back in 2009, a water facility
that is expected to ease the demand on the Angat Dam, currently the only Manila’s
water storage facility, and a water supply tunnel, the Kaliwa Low Dam in Tanay, Rizal.
Plans for the construction of a dam have been proposed since the 1970s, proposed by
the Marcos government when the place was deemed more viable location for a dam
than the Marikina River, however, various protests from different groups came as the
proposed project was aimed to be built around places where indigenous people are
living, notably on Central and Southern Luzon, ancestral places would be specifically
affected, as a result, the proposed project was dumped and restarted numerous of
times in the following decades, last 2009 it was visited but has not seen any changes or
developments due to changes in administration, and compared to the previous
proposals (MWSS NCWS-KDP, will be funded by the Chinese government), the
Japanese firm Global Utility Development Corporation (GUDC) renewed its proposal
(GUDC Kaliwa Intake Weir), an environmental friendly, and budget wise project, it was
officially accepted by LGUs, aside from having no relocations for the indigenous
residents, a lesser cost of $410 million, fully financed and shouldered by the proponent,
a $390 million less than the Kaliwa Dam Project and a much more reasonable
infrastructure for the proposed water storage facility, instead of a high dam, a shorter
weir will be implemented, affecting none of the natural flow pattern of the Kaliwa River
and a 0% damage to the park, the Kaliwa Dam Project, meanwhile, will cost 50% more
of the overall cost, affecting lives of unsuspecting indigenous people, a longer
construction period, financed and 85% owned by the Chinese government, a lesser
Millions of Liter per Day (MLD) may be brought by the GUDC’s proposal (550MLD)
compared to KDP’s (600MLD), but the functionality, and a manageable impact to
environment had have been offered by the GUDC, and despite of all the advantage
Japan’s GUDC has to offer, the government approved and signed the project proposed
by the Kaliwa Dam Project financed by the Chinese.
The Chinese loans is also known as the Money Trap, a loan followed by a large
interest few years later, this has been experience by a handful of developing country
who definitely needs funds building ports, infrastructure, and facilities such as a dam in
our case. This scenario happening inside our country is no different, the same thing
happened on the countries of Sri Lanka, Egypt, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, and now,
our home. This maybe an innovation to the world and to a country, but losing a part of
one’s home ain’t one of it, and a same thing may happen to us, an evident vision of
what China is trying to achieve, it may be a bold assumption to say, but it is showing, a
same “bait” has been offered. A better option is in our hands, however, and despite of
perceivable edge of the Japanese’, it’s a questionable decision to choose a spoiled offer
over an obviously a smarter choice, a choice we never had our voice on. A major
offense not made in China, but by our own kinsmen.

Recently, El Niño manifested and caused a water shortage around Metro Manila,
and even PAGASA implied that El Niño did not brought water shortage, the overused
Angat dam that has been used for decades that currently works fine but will gone into
critical level if a solution will not be implemented and will not be able to supply the water
demand on growing cities, thus, Kaliwa Dam Project was proposed despite of having La
Mesa Dam that is in a critical water level and Ipo Dam, but is the Kaliwa Dam Project
best attempt to the alleged “water crisis”? There are pre-existing dams like La Mesa
Dam and even Angat Dam that can be renovated and improved as well as the Kaliwa
Weir that the Japan’s GUDC proposed. Furthermore, Kaliwa Dam was envisioned to be
constructed inside Sierra Madre, considered as one of the biodiverse area and the
largest remaining tract of rainforest in the country, housing a bunch of endemic, or
species that can only be found in our country and critically endangered species and was
declared as a forest reserve under the Proclamation No.573 on June 22, 1968 and by
Proclamation No. 1636, a portion of the Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve was made
known as a national park and a wildlife sanctuary. The building of the dam will also
displace thousands of indigenous people, roughly 5,000 families of Dumagats and
Remontados will be evicted when the construction of the Kaliwa Dam begun,
additionally, even from the beginning, the building of the dam violates legal processes
and was not consented by the local government of the said indigenous people.
The billion peso Kaliwa Dam, despite of the expensive cost of the construction,
will undoubtedly put lives to risk, it will destroy a rich biodiversity in the area as well as
the ancestral home of the Remontados and the Dumagats, moreover, there are 15
species of amphibians, 334 bird species, 1,476 fish species, 963 invertebrate species,
81 mammal species, 50 plant species, and 60 reptile species according to the
Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool curated by Bird Life International, International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and United Nations Environment Programme
World Conservation Monitoring Centre, a significant number of species are considered
endangered, including the famous Philippine Eagle that shelters in that protected area
among all other critically endangered species such as Hawksbill Turtle, Philippine
Brown Deer, and Philippine Warty Pig and plant life such as the rare and endangered
Rafflesia Manillana and Jade vine.
In addition, we cannot afford to damage our heritage furthermore, the Kaliwa
Watershed itself is roughly 28,000 hectares of ancestral lands, forest and agricultural
lands and from 1988 to 2010, the Sierra Madre already lost 161,240 hectares of forest
due to natural calamities occurred. We cannot furthermore increase the vulnerability of
the land by building a high dam that will collide anytime when an earthquake takes
place. Besides, reducing the forest’s volume will also contribute to the climate crisis we
are experiencing, as a further matter, large dam reservoirs are a significant sources of
greenhouse gas emissions, most notably methane which causes the heat trapped in the
atmosphere.
 And to top it all up, it will come at a huge social cost, we will lose ancestral
domains of Dumagat and Remontado, and the Kaliwa River Basin will be constructed
submerging every burial grounds as well as shelters for the inhabiting species in the
area, and an overall cost of P18.7 billion that the China has funded under a loan and
eventually, years from now, Filipinos will have to pay.
Kaliwa Dam is clearly not the most efficient choice of them all, it is a solution
suggested decades ago with the same risks. It is still a question whether we really need
a new water storage system or is this just a fraud our government executing? Is there
really a water shortage phenomenon or it was just an orchestrated move to make an
excuse for the proposed dam? And if we have Public-Private Partnership that can fund
the said project, why do we need to have the China’s Official Development Assistance
(ODA) to back the project? It is widely known that China has the so-called “Debt-trap”
loan, accepting a loan from them is giving them authority to our country and even
without the loan given out, we cannot defend ourselves against a giant country like
China, but let’s not have our hopes high for an another war, nonetheless, we should not
have China to control a facility or two that belongs to us, our best bet would be, in my
own opinion, is to have the pre-existing dams to be renovated and be improved rather
than taking a part from a prized land we never be able to take back when destroyed, we
could have the weir Japanese’ has offered, but it’s better to not have our hands laid on
the said land as it helped us conserve what our country has, we have Ipo and Angat
dam as well as La Mesa dam that currently on a critical level due to high demand on
water and the dry spell happened recently, Angat and Ipo dam were not affected
though.
La Mesa Watershed is a 2,700 hectares property owned by Metropolitan
Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), 2,000 hectares of the land are dedicated
to woodlands, but due to illegal settling and illegal logging, it became a ruin, it was
restored and called “La Mesa Ecopark” and was reopened to the public by the help of
private organizations. Angat dam, on the other hand, was proposed to be strengthened
to endure the dangers of upcoming calamities, specifically earthquakes to ensure
stability and safety and will be funded by Angat Hydropower Corporation (AHC) and will
cost 553 million pesos along with flood protection handled by the national government,
the construction begun on September 2012 and as of September 2017, it was 50.90%
done. Ipo dam, meanwhile, were eyed for a reforestation project in accordance to the
Annual Million Tree Challenge (AMTC) project by the MWSS that aims to plant a million
trees per year in 5 years, mainly focuses on watersheds, and on 2017, the AMTC
project surpassed its target at 1,258,000 trees planted and received 1,550,000
committed trees for planting last 2018.
Reforestation is one way of making up for the inefficiency of dams, dams affects
the natural water cycle, planting trees can lessen the greenhouse gases that are
emitting from dams, planting trees on reservoirs also can prevent soil erosion, and
thereby extending the life of the dam, but these potential improvements needs to be
supervised. Over planting trees may cause an interception to the precipitation received
by the dam, moreover, it will increase the acidity of the water, specifically conifer trees
like pines, spruce or juniper, and instead, we can use long-lived native deciduous trees
such as acacia, molave, bani, and ilang-ilang, this rather bring enhanced biodiversity in
the area and lesser water loss.

Building such dam with a height of 60m will surely disturb the natural flow of
nature and lives on that specific place, it would disrupt the natural cycle of water, and
will increase further the vulnerability of the site against typhoons, a dam that would cost
billions with no assurance withstanding an impeding attack of an earthquake, and
despite of having an additional water storage system, we cannot ignore the fact that it
will destroy, not only the most biodiverse forest but as well as the future generation that
will pay the debt by any means. China is already owning our West Philippine Sea,
letting them have control over our facilities would such an unbearable fact we will see.
We could have as well let the Japanese’ GUDC work if we wanted a new water storage
facility, it offers the same functionality with a manageable damage over the watershed,
yet, it was the Chinese’ proposal that has been signed.
But do we really needed another water storage facility? We could have just
reforested our existing dam sites and create an “ecopark” that helps not only tourism but
will also help elongating the life of dams by minimizing the risk of soil erosion and with
the right tree and controlled population of it, we can improve the overall quality of the
water we use as well as lessen the water loss and improve even beyond with the
enhancement of machineries the dam uses. A reforestation project that can be done by
any local government units, with such small move, we may never need of another dam.
After all this arguments and suggestions, it all goes back to the question “do we
really needed another dam?” the proposed project was the same back then with the
same risk, in fact, with more risk, it is not a solution as it will develop new nuisances
when the time comes, may be it a calamity or another conquest against our country,
time will tell another history for sure. We could have a better solution than this, and yet,
is there really a problem to be solved? It may be a history repeated, the history of
comfort and fulfillment to oneself over the wellness of their country or I guess, a good
choice? Because whatever position we have individually, we never know what is what,
we are maybe toyed by the ones above and probably sold, too, or perhaps, it may be a
plan to save us of some sort, a long term goal, maybe. But if there’s really a problem to
be solved, I will stand for what will benefit the future more, it is such a small move
towards complications we are facing, but I can stand that it is more profound over a
trivial proposal, it may not satisfy the so-called “problem” but we cannot afford to ruin
what our country is made of, the beauty that lies beneath the forest, those prized
species of endemic animals, the wide variety of flora and fauna, the rich heritage of
indigenous people that has lived their lives there, we cannot afford to lose such precious
culture our country have over a questionable dam.
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http://nwrm.eu/measure/afforestation-reservoir-catchments
Amante-Gamboa, K. (2018, November 21). Haribon: Kaliwa dam a biodiversity threat.
Retrieved April 25, 2019, from https://www.manilatimes.net/haribon-kaliwa-dam-a-
biodiversity-threat/471372/
INQUIRER.net. (n.d.). Why gov't should cancel Kaliwa Dam project. Retrieved April 25,
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project
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recurrence-of-the-water-shortage/534241/
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