Sagada Pidlisan tribe rejects CHARMP watershed project

By Gina Dizon  

SAGADA, Mountain Province --  A proposed research project on watersheds of Sisipitan, Kaman-ingel and Mengmeng (SIKAME) of this tourist town was rejected by people of northern Sagada saying it will disturb wildlife in the watershed areas among other reasons like unresolved boundary issues with adjoining towns.

In an earlier August 11 consultation of the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project2 (CHARMP2) with northern barangays of Bangaan, Pide, Fidelisan, Madongo, Tanulong and Aguid, the people opposed the research saying they don’t understand what the project was all about as a prepared memorandum of agreement called for signatures from northern Sagada constituents.

Another round of community consultation shall be set following a meeting in Baguio City called by CHARMP2 with selected barangay officials and leaders of northern Sagada.

In their declaration of no-consent forwarded to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the six barangay communities referred to as Pidlisan tribe through their leaders said the people of Northern Sagada don’t want any faunal assessment which will disturb wildlife in the area.

They said they didn’t want sacred places as  “apoyan”, “bito” and “kak-aadingan” in their watershed areas.

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) provides rights of cultural communities to allow or reject any research and documentation with regard to right of indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) on management, development, use and utilization of their resources within their ancestral domain and ancestral lands.

CHARMP2 applied for issuance of a certification precondition in a research study entitled watershed characterization as part of an ongoing Sisipitan-Kaman-ingel Mengmeng joint integrated watershed planning to be conducted within the “shared resource area” of the ancestral domains of Lacmaan, Agawa, Gueday, Ambagiw, Tamboan of Besao; Aguid, Bangaan, Pide, Fidelisan, Tanulong and Madongo of Sagada; Mainit of Bontoc; Belwang of Sadanga and Tubo of Abra.

CHARMP wants host communities to come up with a watershed plan.

Some residents of northern Sagada said they will make their watershed plan at their own pace and when they consider that a plan is needed.

CHARMP proposes a 5% share on total gross sales should the research output be sold to the public. Nellie Bolinget, a member of the  Pidlisan tribe said in a separate interview that Pidlisan is not for sale.

Residents in their certification of non-consent also commented on the involvement of Mainit, Bontoc  and  Belwang, Sadanga who don’t have any boundaries in  the identified watershed areas.

Besides, northern Sagada has pending boundary issues with Tubo, Abra so how can the watersheds be “shared”, Kinaud  said. She added that Pidisan does not share any resource with Mainit nor Sadanga and don’t have any agreement as to an already “shared” watershed as presented by CHARMP in the proposed agreement.

In an interview, former Bangaan barangay chairman Osenio Lay-os who joined the meeting in Baguio City said CHARMP looks forward to SIKAME being declared as a protected area and to start livelihood projects with northern barangays.

Bolinget said the Pidlisan people have long protected the area including a joint ordinance that the mountains of northern Sagada are not open to any trekking and tourism activities.

Northern Sagada is a favorite site of researches done with the people including those on customary practices of the watershed protection, communal irrigation, small scale mining and issues on land privatization with government and non-government organizations.  

                CHARMP2 is now in its two year extension upscale project starting 2016 having finished its seven year contract from 2009 to 2015  funded by loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), IFAD ( International Fund for Agricultural Development), and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development (OFID). CHARMP2 with lead agency Department of Agriculture is a $66.4 million project with counterpart from the Philippine government.