San Roque Multipurpose Dam Project:
Gigantic burden to the people

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Millions of people will be endangered by the construction of the San Roque Multipurpose Dam Project (SRMDP). More than 2,300 families, mostly hailing from the Ibaloi minority, will immediately be evicted and lose their livelihood and homes because of the project. The government forcibly reduced about 18% of these families to the status of paupers last year. The project will destroy 39,504 hectares of watershed areas from which 150,000 people from San Nicolas and San Manuel, Pangasinan and Tuba and Itogon, Benguet, make a living. This project mires the Philippines deeper in debt.

These are only some of the effects of the SRMDP, which the Estrada regime regards as the country's monument of the new millennium.

The SRMDP

There are 718 dams awaiting construction in the Philippines. Ten of these are in the Cordillera, including the SRMDP, which is currently the largest infrastructure project in the Philippines. It is being built along the Pangasinan-Benguet border and is the third dam on the Agno River after the Ambuklao (1956) and Binga (1960) dams. The dam stands around 200 meters (the highest in Asia) high, stretches more than a kilometer long and is around 13 sq. kilometers in width. It is the 11th largest in the world and the third largest in Asia. It is presently the largest private hydroelectric power project in the world.

The project was formally started in December 1997 when an agreement was signed by the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC), that administers the construction and operation of the dam.

The SRPC is a giant consortium involving the Marubeni Corporation of Japan, Sithe Philippines Holdings (a division of Sithe Energies of the US, where 29% of stocks are also owned by Marubeni Corp.) and the Kansai Electric Power Company also of Japan.

The US Raytheon Engineers and Contractors bagged the $700 million contract for the construction of the $1.9 billion project. Consistent with the reactionary government's pernicious habit, funding for this project was raised through foreign borrowings. The government has already been able to borrow $1.5 billion from various monopoly banks and has also entered into negotiations to raise the balance.

Forty percent (40%) of the project had already been finished as of May. It is targeted for completion by 2004, Estrada's last year in office.

The government entered into an onerous contract with the SRPC. The SRPC may abandon the project any time it feels that it will not be raking in massive profits from the contract. Whether electricity is generated or not, the government is obliged to pay $10 million every month.

Pangasinan will also suffer environmental damage because quarries will be set up in the province for the gravel and sand needed for the dam's construction.

It is not even necessary to construct the dam to provide electricity. According to the NAPOCOR Employees & Workers Union in Northern Luzon, the NAPOCOR has a reserve capacity of 2,000 megawatts (or almost a third of the country's electricity requirement) for the Luzon grid. Besides, even if the dam does generate electricity, its cost will be too high compared to the amount NAPOCOR currently pays to independent power producers.

For whom?

In February 1998, the eviction of people began in the construction area. Once more, the Ibaloi minority in Benguet were harassed and deceived in order to eject them from the land they have long been tilling. Before the project is finished, some 61,700 people will have been banished from the area.

Meanwhile, once the dam cracks, breaks or overflows, it will inundate 1.5 million people in the provinces of Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac including the 61,400 population of the municipalities of San Manuel and San Nicolas, Pangasinan.

The SRMDP's foundation is also weak because it was built along the Digdig and San Manuel Fault Lines. Thus, there is a very high possibility of widespread land erosion. The dam is also incapable of withstanding big floods.

Clearly, the government is sacrificing the lives, property and livelihood of the people for the sake of continuing the project. The SRMDP has been set up for the interests of foreign mining corporations, so the SRPC could amass millions in profit, so foreign banks could profit from the interest on loans, so special economic zones, agro-industrial estates and agents of the ruling class agents could collect enormous amounts of money from multimillion infrastructure contracts.

The struggle continues

In 1970, the Ibaloi minority succeeded in stopping the construction of Agno III that was later known as the Tabu Dam. Marcos withdrew the project because of the people�s strong opposition to the dam. In 1980, the Butbut tribe in Kalinga led by Macliing Dulag also firmly opposed the contruction of Chico Dam.

At present, 20,000 organized Ibaloi are standing their ground against the construction of the SRMDP. Progressive organizations and individuals within and outside the country are supporting them. They are among the thousands of people who marched in Baguio City and Makati on March 14. Meanwhile a petition from Japan signed by 77 groups and individuals and 12 Japanese parliament members and 500 individuals from 26 countries in support of all Filipinos opposing the construction of the dam has been presented to the government.

Japan has temporarily stopped releasing funds borrowed by the Philippine government for the project. But the US-Estrada regime has declared that it will push through with the project whatever happens, in compliance with the whims of its foreign master.

The Party, New People�s Army and the entire revolutionary movement are one with the people in opposing the SRMDP. We hold the lessons of victorious struggles against the Tabu and Chico Dams. If Estrada has had the uncontrollable urge to announce that the project shall continue at all cost, the more the people should hold fast to armed revolution as their primary means of resistance. Only in carrying this out can the people achieve a gigantic victory and build the genuine monument of history.

July 2000
English Edition

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