TUBA, Benguet – Concerned indigenous peoples (IPs) in the municipality questioned the alleged unilateral decision of the members of the municipal council in passing a resolution interposing no objection to the conduct of a feasibility study by the Baguio City government over its city-owned Asin minihydro power plants that are within their ancestral domain.
Sources, who requested anonymity or security reasons, alleged that the passage of this resolution was done without proper consultations with the IPs and their organization, especially in the areas that will be directly affected by any further development on the minihydro power plants.
The source stipulated that the decision of the municipal council is allegedly in gross violation of the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act which mandates proponents of projects, whether government agencies, local governments or private companies, for the utilization of resources within the ancestral domain to first secure the consent of the ancestral domain owners through the conduct of the free and prior informed consent (FPIC) process.
In passing the assailed resolution, the source questioned who were the ancestral domain that endorsed the passage of the said resolution interposing no objection to the conduct of a feasibility study by the Baguio city government on the Asin minihydro power plants.
According to the source, it seems that the said resolution was railroaded because its contents are general in nature when in fact, it is not the city government that will conduct the feasibility study but allegedly by a multi-national company that reportedly contributed to the election coffers of some elected officials.
The source argued that the decision of the council to unilaterally pass the questioned resolution already compromised the position of the ancestral domain owners on the sensitive matter that evidently was an offshoot of an alleged railroaded process that tend to undermine the established position of the IPs on the said matter.
On the other hand, the concerned IPs also questioned the city government for allegedly using government time and personnel in the conduct of profiling of the land owners who will be affected by the proposed rehabilitation and upgrading of the city-owned power plants, saying that they are doing thew work of the alleged private company that will be tapped by the city government to implement the project which is a violation norms and standards.
The source disclosed that IP leaders from some barangays learned from those profiled that they were simply interviewed and allegedly promised financial assistance from the government in exchange for their support for the projects that will be implemented in the Asin minihydro power plants.
The IP s vowed to assert their rights over their ancestral domain and that they will not allow their rights to be simply trampled upon for the interest of not even the host communities but the interest of outsiders.
