MALACAÑANG

MANILA

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 248

PROVIDING FOR THE CREATION OF A SPECIAL TASK FORCE TO OVERSEE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SOCIAL MEASURE COMPONENT OF THE CASECNAN MULTI-PURPOSE IRRIGATION AND POWER PROJECT (SMC-CMPIPP)

WHEREAS, the improvement of agricultural production and power generation capability is among the primordial development thrusts of the National Government;

WHEREAS, the National Irrigation Administration has found that the run-off waters of the Taang and Cagayan Rivers, the uppermost tributaries of the Cagayan Rivers, could be tapped to irrigate 50,000 hectares of farmlands in Central Luzon and at the same time generate 140 MW of power;

WHEREAS, the project is one of the identified power generation projects of the administration and is envisioned for implementation under the Build-Operate-Transfer Scheme;

WHEREAS, the project design was subjected to several public consultations primarily to establish its social acceptability and to reassure the affected localities that it would have no adverse effects to their environment and indigenous culture;

WHEREAS, the implementation of the Casecnan Multipurpose Project further underscored the need for protection of its watershed areas which are the ancestral domain of the Bugkalots, an indigenous tribe of Nueva Vizcaya/Quirino (Region 02) and Aurora (Region 04);

WHEREAS, the indigenous Bugkalot community and the Provincial Development Councils of Nueva Viscaya, Isabela, Quirino and Cagayan have endorsed the implementation of the CMPIPP in support of the food-production and improved-power-generation-capability programs of the government;

WHEREAS, a Social Measure component of the project was identified in CORD-RDCC Meeting on June 27, 1995 as essential to the social acceptability of the CMPIPP for which the Regional Development Council of Region II has identified fast-tracking intervention on on-going and proposed infrastructure projects in Region II;

WHEREAS, in response to an earlier call for focused attention to the twenty demands of the affected communities within the Bugkalot territory (ANNEX 2) a Plan of Action has been formulated by an Ad Hoc Inter-agency Committee created by the Region II Peace and Order Council last May 1995; and

WHEREAS, after completion of its task to formulate an Action Plan of Bugkalots, the Committee has since been dissolved.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law do hereby order the Creation of a Special Task Force to Oversee the Implementation of the Social Measure Component of the Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMPIPP) with the following composition and functions:

SECTION 1. Composition. The Inter-agency Special Task Force shall be composed of the following:

Chairman :

RDC II Chairperson

Members :

1.1

RDC II Co-Chairman

1.2

NEDA Regional Director

1.3

Representative from Catholic Clergy Region II

1.4

Over-all Chairman of the Confederation of Bugkalots from Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Aurora

1.5

ONCC Deputy Executive Director

1.6

NIA Regional Administrator

1.7

NPC Regional Director

1.8

DENR Regional Executive Director

1.9

DA Regional Director

1.10

DPWH Regional Director

1.11

DILG Regional Director

1.12

DOLE Regional Director

1.13

DOH Regional Director

1.14

DSWD Regional Director

1.15

DECS Regional Director

1.16

PNP Regional Director

1.17

DTI Regional Director

1.18

President-Bugkalot Association on Casecnan Concerns

1.19

California Energy Casecnan Water and Energy Company, Inc. (CECWECI)

SECTION 2. Functions:

2.1 The Special Task Force shall coordinate and monitor the implementation of the following Social Measure Component of the CMPIPP as earlier approved by RDC II in its Resolution No. 326-95, hereby attached as ANNEX 1.

a) Package of Social Measures in Response to the Twenty Demands of the Bugkalots Tribe forwarded to the Office of the President in March 1995. The list of the twenty demands of the Bugkalots appears as ANNEX 2.

b) Implementation of Priority Infrastructure Projects of Region II; and

c) Development, Protection and Management of Priority Watershed Areas of Region II.

SECTION 3. Secretariat. The Regional Office of the Northern Cultural Communities (ONCC) in Bambang, Nueva Viscaya shall serve as the Secretariat of this Special Task Force with the ONCC Sr. Deputy Executive Director as head of the Secretariat and concurrently member of the Special Task Force.

SECTION 4. Funding. The funding of the programs, projects and activities to implement this Order shall come from (a) the agencies whose mandates are consistent with the formulated Plan of Action; and (b) the President’s Contingency Fund in the amount of P30 million for the initial year 1996 and subsequent amounts to be submitted to the Office of the President by the Task Force Secretariat on an annual basis for at least 5 years; and (c) any other Fund as the President may authorize. The release of this fund shall be in close coordination with the Department of Budget and Management and the Secretariat of the Special Task Force, subject to the usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations. Appropriate guidelines of the disbursement of the Fund will be prepared by the Special Task Force Secretariat.

SECTION 5. Term of the Committee. The Committees shall cease to exist six months after the completion of CMPIPP.

SECTION 6. Effectivity. The Administrative Order shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 1st of February in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Six.

(Sgd.) FIDEL V. RAMOS
President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) RUBEN D. TORRES
Executive Secretary

References: Annex 1 and Annex 2

Source: Malacañang Records Office

Office of the President of the Philippines. (1996). [Administrative Order Nos. : 201 – 300]. Manila : Malacañang Records Office.