Residents and indigenous people in Kabugao, Apayao gathered on January 16 at the Community Learning Center to form the Kagdu Kabugao Association for the Defence of Community and Environment (Kagdu), a group opposing the Gened Hydropower Dam project. Kagdu means “ally” or “comrade” in the Isneg language.

Kagdu chairperson Jennymar Melad said the group was established to strengthen unity and firm up the community’s decision to resist the dam project. Kagdu is a United Apayao Environmental and Cultural Community Organization Inc. (United Apayao) chapter. Former members formed the group after observing that the leadership had been slacking in convening the communities it once served.

The Alyansa ti Pesante iti Kordillera (Apit Tako, or Cordillera Peasants Alliance) said the reservoir’s completion will submerge 19 barangays in the Isnag ancestral lands. The Gened 1 Hydroelectric Power Plant’s (HEPP) completion will sink about 900 hectares including the barangays of Waga, Bulu, Magabata, Laco, Poblacion, Luttuacan, and Nagbabalayan in Kabugao, and Barangay Lt. Balag in Pudtol. Gened 2 HEPP will adversely affect around 500 hectares including the barangays of Madatag, Dibagat, and Tuyangan in Kabugao. Flooding and submergence of communities along the upper part of the river may worsen. Towns downstream, including Flora, Sta. Marcela, and Luna, face the same danger.

In November 2025, the company launched a survey among residents living along the Gened 2 site’s proposed route. Barangay Madatag residents said police-escorted company workers marked trees for cutting.

The Kabugao mayor and the Apayao governor met with residents in November and December 2025 to renegotiate the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for Gened 1 and other issues concerning Gened 1 and 2. Residents reported that despite their disagreement over the revised MOA, the company brought in heavy machinery for Gened 2’s construction in the last week of December.

The dams are projects of Pan Pacific Renewable Power Philippines Corporation (Pan Pacific), a subsidiary of Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Corporation.