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Home Headlines

Isnag support 150MW Gened-1 HEPP; slam disinformation

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November 5, 2022
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Isnag support 150MW Gened-1 HEPP; slam disinformation

REAFFIRMATION OF SUPPORT - Authorized elders of the ISNAG ancestral domain in Kabugao sign a sworn statement reaffirming their all- out support to the put up of the 150MW Gened-1 hydro power project within their domain to despoil massive disinformation against the noble renewable energy project for the country's energy self- sufficiency.

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For several months, the 150MW Gened 1 Hydropower Project of Pan Pacific Renewable Power Phils. Corp., had been the subject to negative publicity by oppositionists in both social media platforms and newsprints even to the extent of spreading fake news, disinformation campaigns, harassing elders in the community and   accusing   NCIP for railroading ironically what was a SIX (6) year FPIC process.  

The oppositionists who suddenly cropped up last January 2021 led by the  Kabugao Youth formed by  activist Jann Alexis Lappas and Jillie Karl Basan.   Lappas is a student in UP-Baguio while Basan is an OFW who just returned to Kabugao to support for his father’s campaign during the May 2022 election.  They successfully formed Kabugao Youth to misled the public that they represent the youth sector of the Isnag IPs of  Kabugao.  Per confirmation with the Province of Apayao, both Lappas and Basan are misrepresenting themselves as Youth representatives, since there is already a legitimate Youth organization recognized in Kabugao, Apayao named “Kippy Taddo”.

Who and what  is  Kabugao Youth?  We know  now that they are not the real Youth group of Kabugao. Surely, they are not the usual teeny boppers  activists in school.   They are not based in Apayao – Lappas is in Baguio while Basan was an OFW.   As to age  , most likely they will qualify  as young professionals.  They should have called themselves Kabugao Young Professionals instead.  To coin themselves as Kabugao Youth  

The Kabugao Youth think of themselves as the  righteous, learned  saviors of   Kabugao.   This is of course insulting to their elders who they downplay as uneducated and gullible.   Respect for one’s elders is cultural and traditional in the Philippines.  Kabugao is no exception.  They successfully divided the Isnag community without resorting to the their time and tested traditions of  “pakaman”  where disagreements  on issues are discussed within the community

They are using the  slogan of “ Let the Rivers flow”.   With the prevalence of Kaingin or the so-called “slash and burn” in Apayao Province, the Apayao River  is already silted.  The Kaingin system is the main source of livelihood by the Isnag community.   Trees are cut to pave way for planting of short-lived crops for their daily sustenance.  Sooner or later, there will be no fish to harvest.   Worse, is the effect of the kaingin in the softening of the lands with the uprooting of the trees.    

Kabugao Youth’s active social media platform funded of course by an invisible hand allowed it to propagate lies using a  different narrative to the detriment of the  real elders of the Isnag community  who are longing for progress in Apayao.

As they said, the  “TRUTH will always come out no matter what”.   Kabugao Youth’s statements are pure fabrication.   How can they know the real story  when the group was only formed  in 2021?       

The Isnag community through its authorized elders and leaders has finally spoken.  In a thirteen (13) page Sworn statement dated April 28,2022 signed by 115 legitimate authorized  Isnag elders and leaders of the Gened 1 Hydropower Project,  the elders debunked the  Kabugao Youth’s playbook  that the FPIC process of the 150MW Gened 1 project was railroaded and full of controversies.  

Lappas together with 4 other  oppositionists filed a Motion for Reconsideration (MR) for the issuance of the Certification Precondition granted to Gened 1 last August 2021.  Basan who is the spokesperson of the Complainants confidently explained that it was the decision of the community to decide as a community during the 1st Community assembly held on April 7, 2017.  She further elaborated that the community at that time even decided to include the youths and the immigrants.  She did not mention though that the decisions of the  OFWs or  participants who were not present during the assemblies are taken into consideration.  This is a completely different statement from their allegation that the decision making process emanated from April 7,2017 where “all of the residents of the directly affected barangays will participate in the decision making and that the majority vote will prevail.”   This is a perfect example of how the Kabugao Youth  keep on flipflopping on their statements making a mockery of  the FPIC process when the truth is they are just simply against development in their province.   Their obstinate resistance to change is  obviously ludicrous and downright ignorant. 

Needless to say, the records of the Provincial NCIP and NCIP CAR proved otherwise.

The FACT is that here was NO decision-making process agreed on at their 1st Community assembly on April 7, 2017. What was agreed is that the One AD rule per  NCIP A.O. No 3 Series of 2012  will be followed where both directly and indirectly affected barangays of the Ancestral Domain will decide as a  community.  One of the complainants who is a  also a tribal elder and one of the authorized elders of Gened 1 , Ramos Bongui even confirmed that the decision-making of the Isnag Ancestral Domain is thru their Elders and leaders  BUT NO  resolution of Elders were named or ratified on April 7,2017 since not all the barangays were represented. The initial 83 elders identified  were not confirmed and validated that day.

On another note, what seemed to be a mystery is why the former NCIP CAR RRT FPIC member – Rocky Ngalob is insisting on his RRT report  that the  only directly affected barangays will decide  following the scrapped NCIP Administrative Order  No. 1, series of 2006 where only the IMPACT barangays will be consulted.   As an officer of the NCIP-CAR, he should know better that the NCIP A.O. No. 3, Series of 2012   already superseded NCIP A.O. No. 1, series of 2006.   The 1st community assembly was done in 2017, five (5)  years after the new IR was released.  Despite another assembly held on July 23,2021 attended by more than 625 Isnag elders representing all the 22 barangays of Kabugao community affirmed that their decision making process is through their authorized elders and leaders,  Ngalob’s  RRT  report   is unfair,  very biased and  untruthful reporting  surprisingly leaked  and undeniably started the perfect storm of fake news , unverified statements  and lies that proliferated the social media.  No wonder he was transferred immediately to another region.  As to why he was not investigated , nobody knows.  

Another false narrative espoused by the Oppositionists are the three (3) “No Consents” to the Gened 1 Project.   The Isnag elders pointed out that the 2 declarations of non-consent as alleged by the oppositionists for Gened-1 in February 2019 and September 2019 were not the results of an informed consent.   It was only in December 2020 through a community-initiated assembly where a thorough understanding of the project was achieved and the elders agreed to submit their respective barangay resolutions with names of authorized elders and leaders to negotiate and sign the MOA.   This means that there were no authorized and validated elders yet in Feb 2019 and Sept 2019.   The No Consent resolution was made by the participants who attended those 2 assemblies.  We go back to April 2017, where the community is already aware that the decision should be through their authorized elders and leaders. Per NCIP A.O. No. 3 Series of 2012, the two (2) No Consent assemblies in February 2019 and September 2019 were not valid disapprovals of the community .

In their submitted statement, the  Isnag authorized elders confirmed that they only fully understood the total  impact, nature and consequences of the hydropower project and its benefits to the Isnag community only in December 2019 community initiated assembly  in Brgy. Badduat in the Municipality of Kabugao where they agreed to finally submit their list of elders and leaders which jump started the negotiation process in January 2020.  Per NCIP,   the scheduling of  assemblies were  too long thus the huge information gap. This resulted to a myriad of inaccurate understanding  and confusion about the project.   As a matter of fact,   the oppositionists are still  spreading fake news that the Gened 1 renewable hydropower project is still the  600MW  Apayao-Abulug original concept that would submerge the entire Kabugao municipality in reference to the National Power Corporation’s design of 600mw that will destroy properties and sources of livelihood as a major stumbling block.”

The elders understood only in December 2019  that the Gened 1 was  no longer the feared 600MW Hydropower project  and that  PPRPPC already redesigned it to 150MW hydropower project. That the Gened 1 will not submerge the entire Kabugao town  but  only 1 percent or only 936 hectares of the 93,512 hectares of Kabugao will be affected by the project’s reservoir.  PPRPPC was invited by NCIP to explain again the Gened 1 project  including its benefits.   The  community even started listing down their initial demands which was taken into account by PPRPPC.  The Isnag community at this time were more receptive and have absorbed the project information and  its benefits to the community and to the entire province of Apayao thus they expressed their willingness to continue with the negotiation.

“It was also during the December 2019 assembly that the community manifested to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) their submission of their respective resolutions per barangay naming their authorized elders and leaders to negotiate and shall be the signatories to the memorandum of agreement,” the statement added.

The December 2019 assembly yielded a total of 209 authorized elders and leaders representing the entire Isnag community of the Municipality of Kabugao.

Negotiations ensued on January 17 and 31, 2020.  All assemblies from 2020 onwards were attended by both  the authorized elders/ leaders and the Isnag Kabugao AD. The December 2019 resolutions authorizing the 209 elders were already followed.   Inf act, NCIP showed the signed December 2019 resolutions  and the draft MOA in both English and Isnag languages.  More importantly, the authorized elders underscored that the 209 nominated authorized elders and leaders  for Gened 1 in the  submitted 2019 resolutions were not questioned by the oppositionists in the January 2020 and succeeding assemblies that paved the way for the endorsement of the Gened hydropower projects.

The elders bared that on the January 31, 2020 assembly,  a pre-signed  Memorandum of Agreement was drafted by the authorized elders and  Isnag community  of which most of the terms of the MOA were already agreed on except the valuation of the affected agricultural lands. 

As to the   alleged 3rd No Consent on January 15,2021, the same was not  part of the FPIC process per the NCIP A.O. No.3, Series 2012  since it was initiated by the Local government of Kabugao.  The NCIP conducted an investigation of the January 15 assembly  and it was concluded that only 29 of the 209 authorized elders and leaders of Gened 1 signed the dubbed 3rd No Consent Resolution. The remaining signatories were either outsiders or oppositionists in the community who never participated in the FPIC process. This is when the Kabugao Youth surfaced for the very first time.

To further validate the pulse of the community,  the NCIP and the FPIC team  conducted a secret balloting on March 18,2021,  when all 209 authorized elders were called one by one before casting their votes.   The election was administered by the Commission on Elections of Kabugao in the presence of Jann Alexis Lappas and other known oppositionists.  The result?  Of  the 128  legitimate elders  who  participated in the secret balloting, 86 were in favor of negotiation while only 42 voted against the project. 

Lastly, the elders alleged that the primary oppositionists except the Kabugao Youth  were active participants to the FPIC process  especially during the January 2020 negotiations where they were identified as minority opposition to the project and ironically were also nominated by their respective barangays  as elders and leaders for the  Gened 1 hydropower project. They even signed a pre-drafted Memorandum  of Agreement  on January 31,2020 .   

The elders claimed that after an exhaustive negotiation that started in December 2019 to April 2021, the Isnag community gave the 150MW Gened 1 renewable hydropower project an opportunity for a hearing it deserved where the proponent was able to present the significance and importance of the put up of the hydro power plant in providing alternative source of renewable energy to the grid especially with the looming power crisis  besetting the country.

“It is our firm belief that the community should hear first the proponent about the project and its benefits before it condemns the negotiation because an informed decision after all necessitates the fullest opportunity of due process” the  authorized elders stressed.

The legitimate  Isnag elders and leaders  emphasized that the negotiation process was really extensive, that is why after a six (6) year FPIC process,  the  Memorandum of Agreement  was only signed on April 20,2021.  The MOA included the following   standard benefits  eg. Royalties,  hospital and educational assistance;  compensation for the affected Isnag houses and crop lands;  and mandatory  government benefits  such as real property taxes,  government share  and the Renewable Energy Act 1-94 by the project were reached only on April 20, 2021.  These monetary benefits alone already amount to P2.7 Billion.

The real icing on the cake is the 2 Megawatt (MW)  of Free electricity  available for each  Isnag and Tawit IP households in the  Municipalities of Kabugao and Pudtol.    The Free 2 MW is equivalent to an estimated P350 Million per year or a total of P6Billion  during the duration of the MOA.    

If we add both monetary and free electricity,  we are talking about a MOA that amounts to P8.7Billion.  The authorized elders and leaders  are aware about this.   This is the primary reason why they have finally spoken out. This is one opportunity they surely cannot miss.  

How can someone say no to free power to the entire Province of Apayao, jobs for every Yapayaos  and finally progress to the entire Province?  How can they say NO to a potential P8.7Billion MOA intended for the Isnag community and  their future generations? To yield to this one sided perspective is like waking up one morning  with a dead river and denuded forests; no progress in Apayao ‘and most of the  Isnag IPs  living below poverty lines .   If not the Gened projects, who will invest in Apayao with their current state? 

This is what the Kabugao Youth and the Oppositionists  intentionally omit to bound their  innocent followers to the doctrine of acquiescence.  They conveniently camouflage the bigger picture of the Gened projects to mimic expected actions from their blind supporters that the Gened projects are bad and  Kabugao should remain undeveloped. 

On another note, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.,  on his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered before the 19th Congress on July 25, 2022,  wants all renewable power projects expedited.   This is no longer just about the  Province of Apayao but for the entire nation as well. The country will fall into recession if  the power supply is not addressed as soon as possible.    

Will the Kabugao Youth unfounded advocacy  interfere with the platforms of the  President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.  ? Abangan!  

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