KAPANGAN, Benguet – Concerned indigenous peoples (IP) leaders in various barangays in this town found an ally in Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan whom they will believe will fight for the inclusion of their ancestral domain in the areas to be affected by the proposed 500-megawatt pump storage hydro project in nearby barangay Badeo in Kibungan so that they will be consulted during the conduct of the free and prior informed consent (FPIC) for the project.
Sources claimed the recent move of Rep. Cosalan to facilitate a congressional inquiry against Larry Kim, the former majority shareholder of the Kapangan-based Cordillera Hydroelectric Development Corporation (COHECO), who allegedly sold his shares to Filipino investors, has open the floodgates to more issues to be raised against the planned project and the real intention of Kim in trying to win the hearts of Kibungan people for his project.
The sources pointed out Kim’s alleged treacherous act in selling his shares to investors not of the choice of the IPs is considered betrayal on the part of the Korean businessman to pursue his previous commitments to them when his former company was still conducting the FPIC for the 60-megawatt project in barangay Cuba here, citing that he sold their consent and that they were misled by Kim into believing in his alleged sugar-coated words that eventually ended up in the air and it is now the Filipino investors who are working double time to fulfill what Kim has committed to them.
The Kapangan IPs want Cosalan to help them make concerned agencies realize that the Kapangan ncestral domain will also be affected by Kim’s Coheco Badeo Corporation project because its officials are now trying to work heven and earth to exclude Kapangan from the coverage of the FPIC for them to allegedly manipulate Kibungan IPs into supporting the pump storage project.
According to the sources, barangays Gadang, Sagubo, Pudong and Beleng-Belis will surely be directly affected by the project considering that he siltation of Coheco Badeo operation’s lower dam will result to the said barangays being submerged that will translate to the displacement of thousands of IPs from their domain and their deprivation to their sources of livelihood and to their own land.
Earlier, Kapangan residents vehemently opposed the plan of the National Power Corporation (NPC) to build a dam along the Amburayan river because of its serious negative effects to the ancestral domain and their sources of livelihood.
“We challenge congressman Cosalan to push through with the planned congressional inquiry on Mr. Kim’s alleged activities because it seems that Coheco Badeo Corporation officials are belittling his ability to work out the said investigation. We must rid our province with abusive investors who want to wreck in millions of pesos at the expense of our consent being simply sold to potential investors. What we want in Benguet are responsible investors and not plain users who want to enrich themselves at the expense of the IPs who own the land they plan to develop,” the sources added.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) is now on the process of finalizing its field-based investigation report on the areas to be affected by the pump storage project but Coheco Badeo Corporation officials are lobbying for the exclusion of Kapangan from the areas to be affected and consulted for self-serving reasons. By HENT
