The Commission on Audit questioned the Notice To Proceed (NTP) for the Kaliwa Dam project over several technicalities, including the alleged consent of indigenous people and tribal communities that would be affected by the project.
COA examined the Resolusyon ng Pagpayag (RP) of the Dumagat/Remontado tribe of General Nakar, Quezon submitted by the MWSS, and found out deficiencies on its validity. The acceptability and the legitimacy of the signatures gathered were also doubtful due to:
- the Resolution having no mention of tribal leaders or elders who would recognize or attest to the identity of the indigenous people member who signed the resolution;
- the Resolution not bearing any date when the purported IPs affixed their signature—an important detail since the signature must be within the date of
- assemblies held or a reasonable period after that and not earlier or before the date of the execution of the document;
- the Resolution not stating the number of pages that the document contains;
- no attestation at the back of the document or after all the signatures and that the signatories were properly informed of the legal effects of the Resolution the IPs and ICCs of Rizal and Quezon Provinces adopting the Resolution of consent during the final consensus-building last December 9 and 17, 2019 but that attached listing of signatures of the Resolution is dated December 19, 2019; and
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COA flags ‘Notice to Proceed’ of Kaliwa Dam project
- the Resolution not being notarized—a requirement which converts a private document into a public document and makes it admissible in evidence without further proof of its authenticity.
“Thus, we cannot determine whether these are only the contents of the Resolution or the signature sheets were only attached to the main document,” COA said.
“These groups include residents who argued that they were neither consulted nor informed on the implementation of the project. The same group also claimed that they were disregarded in the dialogues conducted during the community,” it added.
The COA then recommended MWSS to require the FPIC Team to create a valid and proper Resolusyon ng Pagpayag compliant to pertinent laws for the Kaliwa Dam project.