![[REPOST] From our book author, Leslie Paler (CC Infinity on Facebook).—To illustrate just how horrible the Marcoses are,...](https://img4.glartent.com/869/967/109528508699676.jpg)
13/01/2023
[REPOST] From our book author, Leslie Paler (CC Infinity on Facebook).
—
To illustrate just how horrible the Marcoses are, maybe history will teach us something this afternoon. To my family and friends who are still staunch loyalists to this terrible family, maybe this post will convince you to finally join the now revived Kakampink Movement, under Angat Buhay Foundation, and Senator Risa Hontiveros, the lone Opposition in the Philippine Senate today.
Sharing a research that my Historian Consultant from De La Salle University submitted to me, in relation to the life and culture of the indigenous peoples of the Cordilleras in Luzon, of which I am basing the main character of my book, Bagan Mactan, in.
In my story, Bagan is an Ifugao teenager who will eventually become an important leader in contemporary politics, in the fictional story I wrote for my novel, Dalisay - Isang Nobelang Nilalarawan by Leslie Paler. Follow the book! 🙂
Excerpt from our historian’s research:
THE HEROES WHO FOUGHT MARTIAL LAW: MACLI-ING DULAG
According to the Martial Law Museum...
“Macli-ing Dulag was a respected elder of the Butbut tribe in the mountain village of Bugnay in the Cordilleras. He was considered wise and brave by those in the community, and he served three terms as barrio captain of Bugnay.
In 1974, the Marcos regime planned on installing a massive dam along the Chico River. The dam would have been a 1000-megawatt hydroelectric power plant funded by the World Bank. It was planned that the structure would cover 1,400 sq. kilometers of rice terraces, orchards, and local graveyards. The administration thought it would meet little resistance from the indigenous tribes, even if it would displace over 100,000 people from their homes. The people found their voice in Macli-ing Dulag. Though he was not formally educated, Dulag found the right words to defend his people. To this day, Dulag is known for his words against the dam project: “Such arrogance to say that you own the land, when you are owned by it! How can you own that which outlives you? Only the people own the land because only the people live forever. To claim a place is the birthright of everyone. Even the lowly animals have their own place...how much more when we talk of human beings?” Dulag and other Cordillera leaders solidified opposition against the dam through a series of tribal pacts. Recognizing the critical role that he played, government soldiers murdered Dulag in his own house, surrounding it in the night and showering it with bullets. However, though their leader had died, the opposition against the dam stood firm. News of Dulag’s death spread all over the country and even abroad. The World Bank withdrew its funding, and eventually, the government withdrew its plans for the dam on Chico River. The indigenous tribes kept their homes.”
THE CHICO DAM ISSUE
“In 1974, the Marcos government was looking for alternative sources of energy due to the global oil crisis. Plans were made to develop more hydroelectric dams in many parts of the country, among them in Mountain Province and Kalinga.
The proposed Chico River Basin Development Project (CRBDP) called for the establishment of four (4) dams along the Chico River to generate 1010 megawatts of electricity. Chico I dam was planned to be constructed in Sabangan and Chico II in Sadanga, both in Mountain Province. Chico III, on the other hand, was to be built in Basao while Chico IV would be built in Tomiangan, both in the sub-province of Kalinga. The total land area to be submerged was 2,753 hectares. If pushed through, the Project would have displaced approximately 100,000 Kalingas and Bontoks from their ancestral lands. It was estimated that Pl Lmillion worth of fruits, vegetables, and grains would be lost annually when the dam inundated the farms of 5,000 families."
Several field personnel of the National Power Corporation (NPC) frequented Kalinga and Mountain Province to conduct surveys. This was only when the Kalingas and Bontoks learned about the Project for they had never been consulted about it. The people confronted the NPC and aired their opposition to the dams. For the government, however, the 100,000 Kalingas and Bontoks were merely squatters in public lands since they did not possess land titles. According to Presidential Decree 705, otherwise known as the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines, all lands 18 percent in slope or over are classified as forest lands and therefore part of the public domain. This Marcos decree practically classified the entire Cordillera, with the exception of the Tabuk and Lamut valleys, as public domain. In essence, the government was applying state laws on a people living by customary law.
The conflict between State laws and customary laws concerning land is best exemplified in an incident in 1974 in the village of Gawgaw along the Chico. An NPC engineer questioned the Kalingas, "You resist relocation. You intend. to fight for this land that does not even belong to you! Where are your titles?" A Kalinga pangat (chief) replied: You ask if we own the land. And mock us, "Where is your title?" When we query the meaning of your words you answer with taunting arrogance, "Where are the documents to prove that you own the land?" Title. Documents. Proof Such arrogance to speak of owning the land. When you shall be owned by it. How can you own that. which will outlive you? Only the race owns the land because only the race lives forever. To claim a place is the birthright of every man. The lowly animals claim their place, how much more man. Man is born to live. Apo Kabunian, lord of us all, gave us life and placed us in the world to live human lives. And where shall we obtain life? From theland. To work is an obligation, not merely a right. In tilling the land you possess it. And so land is a grace that must be nurtured. To enrich it and make it fructify is the eternal exhortation of Apo Kabunian to all his children. Land is sacred. Land is beloved. From its womb springs our Kalinga life. If the life of the race is threatened, the whole nation, will fight to defend the Motherland. Your plan means our sure death. To simply accept a decree of death is dishonorable. We oppose. To clarify the meaning of our position, we will fight. We would die but our death will be honorable. It will be a long and protracted struggle. But in the end the people will prevail as our ancestors did against the Spaniards, the Americans, and the]apanese. Long live Kalinga and Bontok.
In a separate consultation in Cagaluan, another NPC engineer told the papangat (council of elders), "Don't worry. You will be duly, compensated. I assure you the New Society will exchange your land with the just amount." To this, an elder replied: Young sir, you err to speak of a financial negotiation. Money was not yet invented our forebears had already carved the pappayaw (rice terraces) upon these mountain heights. Since time beyond recall Apo Kabunian revealed to us this place and delivered us into this land. We belong to this land and to no other. It is sacred. Kalinga is not for sale! We will not be bought off. We will not be relocated. We oppose the dams or any project that will cause our dislocation. We repulsed the foreign invaders - the Spaniards, the Americans, the Japanese - who sought to dispossess us, to. dictate on us. Your development project is no different. It is an invasion. It will destroy our homeland, our life as Kalinga. We are committed on our honor to resist and struggle to defend our Kalinga life.
Indeed, the Kalingas and Bontoks organized sporadic protests against the Chico dams. On one occasion in 1974, unarmed Bontok women attacked an NPC camp, bared their breasts, and dismantled the camp's structures. The public got to know about the uproar in Cordillera through an open letter of the anthropologist Mariflor Parpan, who was doing fieldwork in Kalinga, published in The Communicator. Parpan wrote letters to Bishop Francisco Claver, himself from Mountain Province, asking for the Catholic Church to intervene in behalf of the Kalingas and Bontoks. The Church responded by sponsoring several trips to Manila by Bontok and Kalinga elders in the period of February to December 1974 to bring the problem to the attention of Malacañang. These delegations, however, were simply neglected by the government. Instead the government sent to Kalinga in 1975 the representatives of the Presidential Assistance for National Minorities (PANAMIN), the agency that replaced the CN!. The PANAMIN offered educational scholarships to the Kalingas to appease them and convince them into accepting the Chico Project.
In one instance, Macli-ing Dulag, the Butbut tribal chieftain, received a sealed envelope from the PANAMIN. Believing that the envelope contained bribe money, he politely returned it to the PANAMIN representative.
The World Bank funded Chico Dam Project in 1965 was the Marcos dictatorship’s answer to the oil and power crisis of 1973. It threatened to displace 100,000 p...
