Apayao Abulug River Project
Conner, Apayao
While attention was being showered on the Chico dam, the government was quietly building an even bigger project farther north in Kalinga-Apayao.
Known as the Apayao-Abulug River Hydro-Electric Development Project, it was projected to cost about P5.2 billion to construct and will inundate 9 400 ha where some 18,000 members of the Isneg tribal group live in the town of Kabugao. It ap ...
pears the National Power Corporation (NPC) has learned the wrong lesson from the Chico experience.
Instead of becoming more open about development plans and how they affect the people in Apayao, the NPC seems to have become more secretive, in the hope of avoiding another public outcry of the same magnitude as the Chico controversy.
The communities of Conner and the whole of Apayao remain on alert. The Philippine National Oil Company ??" Renewables has already started its survey activities for the hydropower project upstream along the Saltan River in Balbalan, Kalinga that will severely affect the Conner folks who are downstream.
Moreover, the Pan Pacific Renewable Power Phils. Corporation is awarded of a 600 MW hydropower project along the Abulug River. These huge hydro-electric projects are essential infrastructures to supply the energy needs of the North Luzon Quadrangle Development Plan which includes mining projects, agricultural industries and commercial centers.
Apayao Abulug River Hydro Electric Development Project News
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Cordillera Folk Call for NCIP Abolition
Cordillera indigenous peoples called for the abolition of the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) saying that the agency betrayed their interests.
In a protest action in front of the NCIP regional office, Oct. 20, tribe leaders from the six provinces of the region accused NCIP officials of selling out their ancestral land to large mining and energy corporations through the manipulation of the free prior and informed consent (FPIC).
Under the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (Ipra) of 1998 requires the FPIC before approving projects affecting indigenous peoples land and resourc ... -
Philippines Divesite Apo Island House Reef
Only a step away from Atmosphere and one of the largest coastal sanctuaries, the house reef offers splendid underwater life. The reef covers a very large area and is often done as two separate dives -- House Reef North and House Reef South.
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A forgotten hydro power plant project in Abulug
So much has been said about the electric power shortage in Mindanao and the looming power shortage in Luzon, and government officials have been blamed for not having the foresight to address the problem before it became a full-blown reality.
Although Ferdinand Marcos has been pictured as a bad president, we should credit him for having the vision to see the great value of electric power in the pursuit of economic growth.
Marcos ordered the construction of the Magat River Multipurpose Dam that has now been producing electric power for the Luzon grid and irrigating vast tracks of land in t ... -
DoE Approves Hydropower Project in Northern Luzon
The Philippines is on its way to strengthening the country's Renewable Energy (RE) industry as the Department of Energy (DoE) signed another service contract last week approving the new 600 Megawatt Hydropower project to be built in the watershed cradle of Northern Luzon.
The hydropower facility, which would be developed in the twin rivers of Apayao and Abulug in the Cordillera Mountains, was proposed by the Pan Pacific Power Corporation.
Although the RE service contract for the project has been pre-signed already, it was only formalized after Pan Pacific was able to pass all of the fina ... -
Power Conflicts in The Grand Cordillera Central Casecnan Multi Purpose Dam
The Cordillera region is located in the central mountain areas of Northern Luzon in the Philippines. The Cordillera region includes the city of Baguio and the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Abra, and Kalinga Apayao. Border areas of the adjacent provinces are also part of the mountain range known as the Grand Cordillera Central.
The region is indigenous peoples territory. The Cordillera population is now registered at 1.3 million or roughly 2 percent of the total Philippine population (not counting the inhabitants of the border areas). Collectively referred to as Igorot, th ... -
Development and Kalinga and Bontoc peoples resistance to displacement
The survival of a large number of tribal peoples in South-East Asia is increasingly being threatened by the development and implementation of large-seale infrastructure projects that are designed to maximize the extraction and utilization of natural resources. On one side of the conflict are ranged the national government and its economic planners, international funding agencies, giant foreign corporations and their local partners, and the military.
Against the enormous power wielded by the forces of the establishment stand the relatively small communities of tribal peoples with their 'pre ...