VICTORY! Saltan Dams Terminated; UTHP Up for Termination

BAGUIO CITY, SEPTEMBER 15 – Today, representatives of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance–Kalinga (CPA–Kalinga) filed a petition at the NCIP Regional Office demanding the immediate cancellation of the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) applications for DPJ Engineers’ Upper Tabuk Hydropower Project (UTHP) and JBD Waterpower Inc.’s (JWPI) Saltan Dams.

A dialogue with NCIP Regional Director Roland Calde followed, during which he revealed that the Saltan Dam projects have already been terminated and that the UTHP is also up for termination.

“This is a victory for the Kalinga tribes threatened by these development-aggression projects. We welcome the NCIP’s decision and hope that other opposed projects will meet the same fate. We will remain vigilant and expect more decisive action in the coming days,” said Juan Dammay, Chairperson of CPA–Kalinga.

“The failure of the FPIC process to proceed is the result of sustained protests by affected communities over the years. The NCIP’s termination is long overdue, and those projects still up for termination should be cancelled immediately, added CPA spokesperson Ned Tuguinay.

JWPI’s terminated projects include the 49-MW Saltan D and 45-MW Saltan E along the Saltan River, a tributary of the Chico River. However, other renewable-energy and large-scale mining projects continue to threaten Kalinga, often accompanied by intense militarization. Among these is the 200-MW Abra-Kalinga Wind Farm, also by JWPI, which poses an urgent threat to the municipalities of Balbalan and Pasil in Kalinga, as well as Malibcong, Licuan-Baay, and Daguioman in Abra. Geothermal projects of the Aragorn Power and Energy Corporation would affect the municipalities of Lubuagan, Pasil, and Tinglayan. Placed alongside large-scale mining applications, these projects leave the province of Kalinga facing severe threats.

CPA continues to call for the cancellation of these projects and for the genuine recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. “Development should be self-determined. None of these projects is intended to address the lack of basic social services in the Cordillera, contrary to the promises of their proponents. They are all designed for profit. We have seen how much money is lost to corruption. These funds should have been spent on essential services. So-called development projects should never be used as a condition for the provision of those services,” Tuguinay concluded. ###