The Menovu-Pulangiyen and Menovu-Dunguanen tribes of Southern Bukidnon filed a manifesto of protest against the proposed Pulangi V 300 megawatt hydroelectric project before the Department of Energy (DOE) in Taguig City, Manila which gained support from the Dam affected communities.

In a letter sent to Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Cagayan de Oro Office, Mr. Windel Bolinget, Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) chair said “The affected people should do all means possible to resist the dam, otherwise they will be victims like what happened to Pangasinan and the rest of Central Luzon due to the disasters and flooding by the San Roque Dam which we have been opposing since 1996. What we have been saying before is absolutely true and the greed for profit for the dam builders, investors and top government bureaucrats are only that matters to the government”.

The Pulangi V Mega Dam in Damulog, Bukidnon  will inundate vast tracts of land, including those the tribes consider as their ancestral domain. To be affected by biggest hydro-dam in Mindanao are the municipalities of Damulog, Kibawe, Dangcagan, Kitaotao, Quezonand Pres. Roxas of North Cotabato. The dam is expected to generate at least 300 megawatts and would inundate 22 barangays in seven municipalities of Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces.

Descendants of Apu Mamalu gathered last October 19, 2009 in Mikasili Tribal Barangay declaring the burial site of Apu Mamalu, their supreme ancestor, as a cultural heritage site. The gathering attended by Pulangiyen, Kirinteken, Kulemanen, Ilianen, and Ilentungen of the Manuvo tribes and Iranon and Maguindanaon of the Bangsamoro.

“ The Cordillera Peoples Alliance is in solidarity with the peoples opposition against the Pulangi V Dam. The devastations of San Roque Dam, Magat Dam, Pantabangan Dam, Ambuklao Dam and Binga Dam should serve as lesson. The peoples resistance against the Pulangi Dam is a struggle for survival of the communities affected and more to be affected. The historic and successful anti-Chico Dam resistance in the Cordillera needs revisiting especially in this time of climate change and disasters like what we experience now in the aftermath of typhoon Pepeng and Ondoy”.

Local Government Units, Business operators, civilians are planning legal suits over the operators of San Roque dam for allegedly failing to properly warn residents along the Agno river basin in northern Luzon in the release of water during the height of typhoon “Pepeng” would cause massive flooding. Residents in low lying areas of North Cotabato and nearby provinces raise some concerns of what happened in Pangasinan would likely occur in their province.

http://thereporteronline.com.ph/2009/10/24/san-roque-people-support-mindanao-tribes-mega-dam-opposition/