THE PHILIPPINES'
PEOPLE-POWERED
LOCAL CAMPAIGNS

By signing this petition, you will help save reforestation efforts urgently needed to restore the diminishing water supply, to provide sustainabl e livelihood to surrounding communities, and perhaps most importantly, to guard against catastrophic landslides and flashfloods like those brought by Ondoy in 2009. Together, let us #SaveMasungi. #NoToQuarryinMasungi Petition Short Link: bit.ly/savemasungi

1. The Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve (KWFR) is home to the indigenous Dumagat-Remontado communities, who have been stewards of their ancestral domain within the Sierra Madre since time immemorial. The Tinipak River spring is a sacred site in Barangay Daraitan, within the Dumagat-Remontado ancestral domain and declared an indigenous community conserved area. Building the 60-meter Kaliwa Dam poses the threat of inundation of portions of Barangay Daraitan and Tinipak River, as well as Infanta in Quezon. 2. Daraitan and Tinipak River provides important economic activities to local communities, from tourism, to non-timber forest products for livelihood. 3. Daraitan and Tinipak River is an ecologically important water system that enhances climate resilience. It provides key ecosystem services to downstream areas, playing an integral role in regulating water flow to the National Capital Region. Forests act as natural water filters. Globally, forested watersheds supply 75% of the world’s accessible freshwater needs. (FAO, 2016) 4. Daraitan and Tinipak River are within the Kaliwa Watershed, home to rich biodiversity and threatened wildlife, including the critically endangered Philippine Eagle. Other important species include the Endangered Northern Philippine Hawk-eagle, the Philippine Brown Deer, the Philippine Warty Pig, the Vulnerable Northern Rufous Hornbill, the Critically Endangered Philippine Eagle, and restricted-range birds of the Luzon Endemic Bird Area. The KWFR was declared a reserve by virtue of Presidential Proclamation (PP) 573 dated June 26, 1969. In April 18, 1977, PP 1636 was also issued declaring Kaliwa Watershed as a National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary. Disrupting natural ecosystems and local livelihoods by building the Kaliwa - NCWSP Dam is not the solution to water security nor sustainable development. Forests have a crucial role in building and strengthening resilience. There is a need to explore other viable alternatives. The most urgent is to protect the critical Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve within the Sierra Madre. Save Daraitan and Tinipak River, and the lives and species that depend on these for survival.

Young people defy the normal because normal was the problem. We are going to inherit the present; we are the future. The youth agenda is centered primarily on the young Filipino People, and none of the youth wanted the world to return to pre-coronavirus normal where we see how broken our society is. We see COVID-19 as an opportunity to address the current socio-economic, political and environmental issues revealed to us by the pandemic, we are now finding ways to reimagine and ratify a new world where leaders are ideal servants in words and actions. The Filipino youth wants a better normal and we will break the status quo. #BetterNormalYouthAgenda #AmbagNgKabataan