{"id":236029,"date":"2019-10-28T22:52:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T02:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=236029"},"modified":"2019-10-28T22:52:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T02:52:32","slug":"prrd-mulls-extraordinary-powers-for-kaliwa-dam-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/28\/prrd-mulls-extraordinary-powers-for-kaliwa-dam-project\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD mulls \u2018extraordinary powers\u2019 for Kaliwa Dam project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the 69th National Executive Board Meeting of the League of Cities of the Philippines at the DusitD2 Davao Hotel in Davao City on September 27, 2019. ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said he is considering the use of \u201cextraordinary powers of the presidency\u201d to fast-track the construction of the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam project to prevent another water crisis in Metro Manila.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will use the extraordinary powers of the presidency. I could not just allow people to go about without water even for drinking,\u201d Duterte said in a media interview in Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday.<\/p>\n

Duterte said despite opposition by groups, which claimed that the construction of the Kaliwa Dam would displace indigenous peoples (IPs), he said he felt it would benefit more people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking stock of my options such as expropriation or outright police power\u2026You just go to court and file a case if you want. I am there and I will start to find a way how to connect the water to the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President said the government could easily place \u201csafeguards\u201d for the land and people that may be affected by the construction of the China-funded dam.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung yung<\/em>\u00a0concern\u00a0ninyo<\/em>\u00a0(If your concern is) local governments\u2026it will pollute, it will destroy, I\u2019ll just say to the\u00a0kung sino mag ano<\/em>\u00a0(to whoever is in charge), you just place the safeguards,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might create some danger and damage but that is not my concern. My concern is the welfare. The greatest good for the greatest number. That is democracy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked to comment on the Commission on Audit (COA) report which showed that the bidding on the dam project was “in the guise of being a competitive procurement process”, Duterte said that he could take over the project himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will go there and operate it myself. I will take over and I will direct what to do.\u00a0Ganun lang \u2018yun. Hindi ninyo kaya?<\/em>\u00a0O sige ako, alis kayo diyan<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s how it is. You can\u2019t do it? Okay, I\u2019ll do it. Get out of there),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said government can still rescind its contract on the China-funded dam if investigation results show it may be disadvantageous to the country.<\/p>\n

The Kaliwa Dam project in Quezon province is expected to provide an additional 600 million liters a day (MLD) of water to Metro Manila and environs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said he is considering the use of \u201cextraordinary powers of the presidency\u201d to fast-track the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":233143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236030,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236029\/revisions\/236030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}