The proposed 150MW GENED-1 Hydro Power Plant project to be built along the Apayao-Abulug river which was awarded by the Department of Energy to Pan Pacific Renewable Power Phils. Corp will fully submerge 8 of the 22 baranggays of Kabugao, Apayao and 1 baranggay in Pudtol Apayao.

The proposed dam will wipe out half of the ancestral lands of the Isnag tribe, a small thriving community of self-reliant, peaceful people, living in harmony with each other sustained by lands cultivated by our ancestors centuries ago who chose to settle along the banks of the Apayao River.

The Apayao river provides sustenance and serves as a main thoroughfare to travel and trade between the small settlements or barangays in this small town of 17,000 or so people.

The construction of this dam violates RA 8371, The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, whereby the indigenous people are given the right to approve or not to approve constructions of structures that will damage ancestral lands. The Isnag people, led by our Elders have adamantly refused the building of this dam. Three times votes were called and three times the Elders have voted emphatically NO as one and yet negotiations are still ongoing and being forced upon the community.

The plans for building a dam in our river has been going on for decades and each time new negotiators and new corporations came their proposals were always met with a resounding NO but this latest onslaught on our people by Pan Pacific Corporation is incessant and aggressive.

Construction plans/blue prints, minutes of meetings, and other pertinent documents that will provide Free, Prior and Informed Consent to the Isnag tribe have been withheld from the public despite petitions from our people.

The construction of this dam will be also be an environmental catastrophe, mountains and forests will be levelled, lands flooded and low-lying areas particularly lower Apayao and parts of Cagayan will be at risk of severe flooding.

Cagayan and Isabela have just recently experienced massive floods due in part to Magat’s dam releasing tons of water, do not keep doing the same mistake.

This dam will not benefit the Isnag people at all. The promise of measly compensation for our lands will not pay for us losing our homes, our identity which is tightly tied to the depths of the Apayao river and the burial grounds of our ancestors and the only way of life we have ever known and ever wanted.

Please do not allow the Isnag Tribe to be another victim of injustice and corporate greed.

Help us!