Across the country, Indigenous Peoples have been sounding a warning we have been slow to hear.
“Ang proyektong iyan ay isang dambuhalang linta na sisipsipin lahat ng yaman ng bundok. Hindi naman po pansarili ang aming ipinaglalaban.” (That project is a giant leech that will suck the mountain dry of its riches. What we are fighting for is not for ourselves alone.)
These were the words of an Aeta elder opposing the proposed Pax Silica development in Tarlac.
Farther south, in General Nakar, Quezon, a Dumagat mother who marched 150 kilometers to oppose the Kaliwa Dam, spoke of the burden she carried:
“Tuwing naglalakad po kami, tuwing naiisip ko ang gagawin sa amin at mangyayari sa amin at sa susunod na henerasyon, halos ako po ay naiiyak sa daan dahil pakiramdam ko pasan ko ang Sierra Madre.” (Every time we walk, when I think about what will happen to us and to the generations after us, I almost cry because I feel as though I am carrying the Sierra Madre on my shoulders.)
Communities and environmental groups warn that the dam threatens the biodiversity of the Sierra Madre.
A giant leech draining a mountain. A Dumagat mother carrying the Sierra Madre on her shoulders.
