MANILA, Philippines — Party-list group Bayan Muna is taking the freedom of information (FOI) route to get the data on what it described as “onerous” loans the Duterte administration has obtained from China.
The group has written Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, who heads the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), to formally request for information on the loans, including those for the Kaliwa dam water supply and Chico river irrigation projects.
It is also seeking data on fees the government would pay Chinese consultants for the projects.
In his letter to Pernia, former congressman and Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares said among other purposes, his request would enable him to “comply with the procedural requirements of the courts as to submission of certified true copies of documents, in case my office believes that a case should be filed in relation to these loan contracts.”
He invoked the constitutional provision on the right of the people to be informed on matters of public concern and NEDA’s own FOI guidelines contained in the agency’s Circular No. 06 issued on Nov. 25, 2016.
Bayan Muna also chided Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III for pitching for a Chinese loan amid the raging water supply crisis.
“As if on cue, in the midst of this unwarranted water problem, Secretary Dominguez is again floating the Laiban Dam project, the parent of the Kaliwa-Kanan dam proposals, that has been on and off since the martial law years (and which) would evict the Dumagats and Remontados indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands,” Colmenares and Rep. Carlos Zarate said.
They said the project would submerge 28,000 hectares of land and would be funded by China and constructed by Chinese companies.
“In the P3.6-billion Chico river irrigation loan, so much onerous conditions were imposed, what more for this P18.8-billion Laiban dam?” they asked.
They said Dominguez should not use the water crisis “to sink the country deeper into the China debt trap.”
Colmenares and Zarate also claimed that aside from loan conditions that are disadvantageous to Filipinos, the possible displacement of tribes from their ancestral lands and the harmful effects of the planned dam to the environment are a cause for concern.
Bayan Muna proposed that instead of building mega dams, the government should “study viable options to ensure water supply, like stricter regulation and management of water concessionaires, ensuring consumer use efficiency and repairing leakages, which result in water waste.”
Both Zarate and Colmenares said they are studying the possibility of filing a complaint against Manila Water for its water supply interruptions.
“Affected consumers have come to us for legal remedy and we are now studying a class suit to be filed against Manila Water for the losses suffered by small businesses and the hardships suffered by poor families,” they said.