Opposition Senator Leila de Lima has urged the Senate to pass the resolution calling on the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to immediately suspend construction activities in the Kaliwa Dam project following reports of multiple irregularities and violations of procedural guidelines and protocols in the vicinity.

De Lima said there is a need to suspend all construction activities on the China-funded infrastructure project immediately until all the legal prerequisites are met by the implementing agencies and nagging issues are settled.

“Government remains hell-bent to push forward with the project, despite credible claims that the social, cultural, environmental, and economic costs of the Kaliwa Dam Project outweigh its purported benefits,” de Lima said in filing Senate Resolution No. 909.

“There is a need to determine once and for all the viability of the Kaliwa Dam Project and the impacts it will have on its primary stakeholders, particularly the local indigenous population,” she added.

The Commission on Audit (COA) earlier flagged the MWSS in its 2020 Audit Report over the controversial New Centennial Water Source Kaliwa Dam Project which was continued even without the necessary environmental permits from appropriate government offices.

MWSS is the government agency in charge of the project which aims to deliver 600 million liters of water per day to Metro Manila. The contractor of the project is the China Energy Engineering Corp., which has reportedly started construction activities in the area despite complaints from indigenous people who would be displaced.

De Lima noted that among the issues and controversies surrounding the project that stood out is the alleged “debt trap” since the loan agreement is said to be unfavorably tilted towards China with its unusually high interest rate, exclusivity to Chinese contactors, and bias for Chinese laws.

She also said that based on the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities’ probe into the project, laws protecting indigenous peoples (IP) rights were not complied within the course of the project.

The senator said those who allowed the construction activities to commence in the first place, without seeking the consent of IP communities must be held accountable under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997 and other relevant laws.

“With the controversies surrounding the Kaliwa Dam project, there is also a need to explore alternatives to address water security so that we may not only protect the rights of ICCs/IPs to their ancestral lands but also maintain the beauty and biodiversity of our forests and mountainous regions,” she stressed in her resolution.