FPIC, impact areas and ancestral domains

HAPPY WEEKEND

By Gina Dizon

NAPUA, SABANGAN- It is frustrating to note that the coverage of an impact area of Hedcor’s 14 megawatt hydro project in Sabangan refers only to the space- barangays Napua and Namatec- where the company’s projects and plans are located as identified by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).   

This  observation came in the midst of the  October 8 public hearing attended by the congressional committee on national cultural communities in response to a petition filed by the Napua Sabangan United Guides Association Inc (NSUGAI) and the Volunteers against Corruption(VAC) questioning the National Commission  on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) violations  securing the free prior and informed consent of the representative indigenous peoples of Napua and Namatec on Hedcor’s 14 megawatt project and reported violations in the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) issued by  the department of environment and natural resources (DENR).

Petitioners Juniper Dominguez of VAC and Richard Budod of NSUGAI posed the question – why only the IPs of Napua and Namatec are included in the FPIC process and not the whole 15 barangays of Sabangan- to the visiting members of the congressional committee chairman and congresswoman Nancy Catamco of Cotabato, and member- Representatives Carlos Padilla of Nueva Ecija, Noel Villanueva of Tarlac, Maximo Dalog of Mountain Province and Nicasio Aliping of Baguio City.

A basic question indeed to cover the basic framework of what an indigenous people is in determining relations to his  ancestral domain cover the land, the waters and the air above, his livelihood sourced from these resources and interrelated relations to peoples in adjacent villages. 

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) is clear on what an ancestral domain says, “All areas generally belonging to ICCs/IPs comprising lands, inland waters, coastal areas, and natural resources therein to include ancestral lands, forests, pasture, residential, agricultural, and other lands…”

As it is, the ancestral domain of the indigenous peoples of Sabangan where the 14 megawatt hydro project is worked on show  excavated slopes of Tinmakudo Mountain in Napua to give way to access roads to the intake weir at the other side of the Mt Kalawitan area. Construction saw the throwing of debris and earth spoils including tree saplings down the Chico River threatening the river of impending siltation which is one of the major complaints of NSUGAI and VAC.

Add to these diverted waters of the Chico River from its natural course to add to its murkiness  due blasted rocks and siltation on the flowing of waters downstream barangays Namatec, Gayang, Losad and Poblacion Sabangan.

An elder  even said there is no more wading (river fish) to catch since the hydro started  construction  in 2013 obviously from the dynamite blasting of  Kalawitan mountain to give way to the building of the tunnel. It is obvious that marine life has decreased in downstream waters.   

The tunnel lets the waters flow from the intake weir to the powerhouse near the banks of the Chico River at Namatec.

And of course it is an immediate conclusion that transmission lines shall cross other  barangays where the lines shall connect to the National Corporation Grid  (NGCP)- MOPRECO substation passing through lower barangays on to Supang to the Baang-Bauko substation, urging barangay chairman Ireneo Pilakan of Poblacion Sabangan to say that people at lower Sabangan should also be consulted as transmission lines are projected to cross these areas.

Limiting the consent secured from only Napua and Namatec definitely limited the area to cover only the physical location of the intake weir and the power house and disregarded barangays where projected transmission lines and electric posts shall pass through. Why, when in fact transmission posts and electrical wirings are part of the plan of an energy plant.

That is, to base on the provisions of the 2006 FPIC guidelines of which NCIP quickly claimed is the basis of the selection of Napua and Namatec as impact areas; and as part of the documents required  to process an application  which include among others location map  indicating the name of sitios  and /or barangays  covered by the project.

The 2006 implementing rules on FPIC states the field based investigation (FBI) shall determine the area affected taking into consideration the following criteria: “The  impact area as defined by the concerned  regulating  agency or the impact  area  applied to programs, plans, projects,  or activities  that require  environmental impact assessment  on the basis  of the project  documents and the indicative map  submitted by the applicant  to find out the extent  of coverage of both the area affected  and the members of  the community whose  consent  is to be  obtained….”

“NCIP interpreted the impact as simply physical sites o of the project and did not consider the holistic impact”, Indigenous peoples rights advocate Florence Umaming, member of the technical working group in the drafting of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) said in a separate interview.

Manang Florence views where I also draw inspiration in writing this column  added, “Let the Igorot-Kankanaey of Sabangan determine the impact of the proposed project on the cultural physical, political, and social system of the indigenous cultural communities affected”.

The 2006 guidelines while it  tried to accommodate the technical description of the project proponent’s  plans and programs have loaded provisions on what an affected or impact area means to refer to an ancestral domain owned by an indigenous cultural community.

And when in doubt or ambiguity on the interpretation of laws, IPRA itself provides that this shall be resolved in favor of the ICCs/IPs.

Obviously, NCIP’s strict interpretation of the area based on the physical constructions of the weir and the powerhouse at Napua and Namatec respectively left out the other five barangays  downstream where the  Chico river flows and the eight upper barangays who are part of a Sabangan ancestral domain.

An interpretation which leaned in favor of the proponent company Hedcor to apparently cut on costs and that of NCIP seemingly doing compliance work.

An interpretation which drew comments from residents of other affected barangays within  a domain needing consultation as well.

Former barangay official and community elder and leader Lakay Gegway said Capinitan people should be consulted as the project also affects their river system.

The domain referred to is Sabangan ancestral domain clearly noted in the Sabangan peoples application to DENR in 1995. That is, there is already an identified indigenous people’s community living in an ancestral domain in 1995 and before those years ago.     

It is a startling revelation to note also that two other barangay-members Busa and Capinitan were not consulted on the FPIC process much as they belong to the so called Tinmakudo tribe which represented the indigenous peoples to enter into an FPIC-MOA with NCIP in furtherance to Hedcor’s hydro project. 

By the way, the so called Tinmakudo tribe was coined  as facilitated by NCIP when the four barangays-Busa, Capinitan, Namatec and Napua- filed their application for a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) in 2009 considering their  non- presence of boundary conflicts made them recipient of an NCIP- World Bank funded project to delineate applications for ancestral land titles.

It is interesting to note that Umaging Agustin in his elderly years who was born and lived in Napua said Tinmakudo refers to the name of a mountain. He said people are referred to as those from their places of origin such as people from Napua and not people from Tinmakudo. People basically refer to themselves as them coming from their place where they were born and raised in.

Anyways, considering an ancestral domain covers the eco-system of indigenous peoples then the two-barangays-Busa and Capinitan should not have been ignored in the FPIC process.

Catamco commented that an ancestral domain will customarily include all who are members of an ancestral domain in the FPIC process.

And when we talk of affected barangays, covers downstream  barangays- Gayang, Losad, Bun-ayan, Lagan, Poblacion  along the  Chico River definitely affected with the debris and earth spoils  having fallen down the slopes of the mountain to the  Chico river due to the discoloration of the waters of the river nand its effect on the death of marine life and threatened  decrease of  rice harvest  due contaminated  waters  due blasted mountain rocks using dynamites.

Wouldn’t you consider this a vast stretch of what the coverage of an impact area shall be? It practically covers the whole of the 15 barangays of Sabangan to technically cover what company projects and plans would cover and culturally and legally as a domain area shall cover the whole vast watersheds, woodlots and residential areas where transmission lines shall pass through and Chico River where the water passes through the downstream barangays of Sabangan aside from the weir and the powerhouse at Napua and Namatec.

Now NCIP representatives turns to the 2012 revised FPIC guidelines  and said that the revision now covers the ancestral domain area as the impact area. 

Yet one thing is sure, the very interpretation of an impact or affected area has always been there in the 2006 provisions supported  in the basic IPRA law and made pronounced in the 2012 guidelines for those who strictly look for words to base their decisions. Yet  to enliven and make the IPRA and its implementing guidelines be  relevant, living  and consultative, it is a basic framework  to listen more closely to what the villager- IPs are saying.