The project however resurrected, when it was resubmitted together with the Kaliwa dam (see below related conflicts) as New Centennial Water Supply project (NCWS), under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme. The initial New Centennial Water Source Project, containing both the Laiban and the Kaliwa dam projects, was planned to be developed within the context of the Water Security Legacy (WSL) Roadmap, proposed by the MWSS in 2012-2016 [2]. The construction of the Laiban dam, however faced very strong opposition during 2010, and was postponed following the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)’s recommendations to submit the dam projects separately. While the Kaliwa Dam is now moving forward, the Laiban dam, currently postponed, remains as a priority of President Aquino’s administration, facing strong resistance [3].

The Laiban dam would be located on ancestral lands of indigenous Dumagat and Remontado. The dam would require the flooding of 28,000ha, on which around 4,000 families live [1;4]. Its construction would thus displace and dispossess around 21,000 people from seven villages in Rizal province and Northern Quezon [4;5]. The indigenous, resisting the project since the 1980s, face constant harassment by the military, telling them to stop protesting [3]. In addition to the social impacts of repression, dispossession, displacement and loss of indigenous culture, there are tremendous environmental impacts, such as the deforestation of the unique Sierra Madre primary forests and associated destruction of biodiversity hotspots, potential increases in water-borne diseases such as Malaria, and large disturbances in the river ecosystems, home to important fish sanctuaries. Moreover, from a political and economic perspective, the project contributes to growing national debt, while fomenting exclusion of poor water users through commodification of water and increasing privatization of water as common resources. All these impacts would follow the dam construction as so-called solution to a water crisis, which is however largely caused by growing corporate water demand of Metro Manila, rather than household demand [6].

There has been continuous resistance against the dam project for over more than 30 years, and which nowadays it still goes on. Thanks to the many different mobilizations, ranging from protests marches, over pickets and blockades to national forums on the issue and large civil society organization (CSO) networks that provided an alternative view on the project, the Laiban dam was several times stopped or deferred [3]. It is now already the second generation that actively opposes the project. In the words of the young Dumagat secretary of the indigenous organization Balatik: “I see the need to fight because we will lose our life, our livelihood and our culture. We’re doing this for the generations to come”. As stated by another young Dumagat: “The forest is our life. If you remove the forest, then you remove our life. We will be wiped out” [3].

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