P7-B Davao Mega Project Threatens Lumads, Promises ‘Wrong Solution’

The Saug River Multi-purpose Project (SRMP), part of a P7-billion mega project funded by World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, aims to bring hydro-electric power to boost the Davao provinces’ agriculture, among others. But Dibawanons, who have opposed the project since 1996, fear a big catastrophe to their lives and land.

By CARLOS H. CONDE and DAISY C. GONZALES
Published: August 18, 2002Bulatlat.com

ASUNCION, Davao del Norte – Datu Dominador Tibog, 48, points to a mountain that is practically bare except for patches of what looked like gmelina trees. “Those are the lands of my people and they’ve all been taken away,” he says in Visayan. He is on a hill where his hut, which he shares with his wife and one child, is built by the slope, overlooking a small valley.

Tibog looks down at the trees and shrubs below, almost longingly. “We have lost so much of our lands,” he sighs. Tibog, the leader of the Dibabawon tribe living in several barangays in this hinterland town, is a frail-looking man with incredibly sunken cheeks. He looks vulnerable. More than that, he looks as though he’s seen it all.

In a lot of sense, he has. He tells of how his forefathers fought very hard to keep their lands. He recounts how, up to this day, they are still carrying on that struggle. He bewails that, just as his friends and relatives had experienced years ago, they are still caught in a conflict involving their land.

The Dibabawons in this part of the Davao provinces are claiming thousands of hectares as ancestral domain. Much of this land had been turned into plantations for such products as trees, coconuts and bananas for big local and foreign companies.

Today, a foreign-financed government project called the Saug River Multi-purpose Project (SRMP) is threatening to encroach into Dibabawon land, including those owned by Tibog’s family.

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