LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines—In a bid to stop the construction of the multi-billion-peso Laiban dam in the Sierra Madre watershed, indigenous tribesmen, farmers, religious, and environmentalist groups are set to stage a nine-day protest march from General Nakar, Quezon, to Manila starting November 4.

“Rain or shine, the protesters led by Agta tribesmen will trek to Manila to voice out their life-and-death opposition to the project. God is with them in their pursuit for justice,” Fr. Pete Montallana, chairMAN of an environmental group called Save Sierra Madre Network (SSMN), said in a phone interview Monday.

Montallana, a priest from the Prelature of Infanta who has been spending most of his missionary works among Sierra Madre tribesmen, recalled that in 2007, he already dared local and national candidates to declare their opposition to the controversial dam project at the mountain river.

“Once more, I’m challenging these candidates in the 2010 elections to make a stand and publicly express their support to the ongoing struggles against Laiban dam,” he said.

Some 100 marchers will participate in a grueling 148-km march dubbed “Lakad Laban sa Laiban Dam (Walk Against the Laiban Dam)” from northern Quezon to Malacañang, according to protest proponents.

Aside from the SSMN, the protest organizers include the Freedom from Debt Coalition, the Pambansang Kilusan ng Samahang Magsasaka (Pakisama, National Movement of Farmers’ Associations) and the Task Force Sierra Madre. The march is also being supported by the Prelature of Infanta and local governments in northern Quezon.

In a statement, the protest organizers said the government and the public must be persuaded to stop the construction of the dam because of the destruction it could bring to the environment of northern and central Luzon.

The SSMN said the mishandling of the release of water from the San Roque dam in Pangasinan, at the height of typhoon Pepeng, which caused flooding in many parts of northern and Central Luzon, ought to make the government and the public re-think the Laiban dam project.

The group branded the proposed dam project as “anti-environment, anti-development, and anti-human rights."

“The dam reservoir of 28,000 hectares is set to displace 4,413 families from seven barangays (villages). Legally protected rainforest areas, home to endemic and endangered species, would go underwater as part of the dam reservoir area," the group said. Also threatened were areas being claimed as ancestral lands by the Dumagats and Remontados, the group said.

Citing studies and researches, Montallana said the project would diminish the water flow in Agos River. This, he said, could affect navigation, irrigation, and fisheries in the river and its estuaries.

The proposed location of the dam is near geologic faults, according to Montallana.

“Laiban dam is being built on the Marikina-Infanta earthquake fault. An estimated 22,000 residents in Real, Infanta and General Nakar have signed a petition against the dam as it will simply wash into the sea more than 100,000 people living there in case of an earthquake. This is being ignored,” the priest said.

Last July, two Catholic bishops and 28 priests in the Prelature of Infanta have also assailed the government plan to push through with the construction of the Laiban dam that will cover a portion of Rizal and Quezon provinces.

The project, a looming joint-venture between San Miguel Corp. and the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System, is designed to divert water from the Kaliwa and Kanan rivers in the Sierra Madre and augment the water supply in Metro Manila.

The two mountain rivers are major tributaries of the Agos River that runs along General Nakar and Infanta towns.

During the Marcos regime, the dam project was proposed to be a part of the so-called industrial complex plan in northeastern Luzon.

But due to the strong opposition to the project being waged by indigenous peoples, the project was shelved—leaving only two diversion tunnels as reminders of the aborted project.