BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya: The Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation and Power Project in Alfonso Castañeda town here may suffer more damage if Bugkalot protesters continue to block a South Korean company contracted to manage and operate the CMIPP, according to government authorities.

In his letter to Gov. Carlos Padilla, Lt. Col. Gil Ileto, Philippine Army’s 84th Infantry Batallion commanding officer based in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, said the CMIPP’s intake weir (small dam) sustained damage from overtopping and overflow of water and debris.

Ileto also said the intake weir located in Barangay Pelaway was also damaged during the onslaught last week of Typhoon “Karding” in the absence of technicians from the South Korean firm Soosan ENS Co. Ltd.

“The maintenance technicians of Soosan ENS were blocked by barricading protesters composed of members of the Bugkalot tribe and reinforced by their tribal community,” he said.

In 2021, the Bugkalot tribe demanded recognition of and respect for their ancestral domain rights and benefits under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or IPRA law.

While appealing for support from the national leadership of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, a group from the Bugkalot tribe continued staging protests in front of the Soosan firm’s office in Pelaway village despite opposition from a larger number of the indigenous people’s group.

During the Karding onslaught, Ileto said, the Soosan ENS firm’s technicians were not able to gain entry to the facility to control the water accumulated at the intake weir.

“We fear that although the water has already subsided, a similar situation in the future without the facility technicians to control the flow of water at the intake weir gates might lead to severe damages to the dam and may even lead to its destruction resulting in loss of lives in downstream communities in Casecnan,” Ileto pointed out.

He said they have exhausted all possible solutions and negotiations with the Bugkalot community in Casecnan for the entry of the Soosan ENS technicians to the CMIPP but to no avail.

Thus, Ileto appealed to Padilla, who heads the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) to elevate this concern to the Regional Peace and Order Council.

The governor has convened the PPOC to form a technical working group to gather information and make recommendations concerning the situation in Casecnan as soon as possible in collaboration with other government agencies and civil society groups.

He said he will also elevate this matter to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for immediate resolution of issues between the Bugkalot tribe and the Soosan ENS management as well as the peace and order situation in the province and neighboring provinces.