Macliing Dulag

Macliing Dulag (also spelt Macli-ing, Macli'ing; c. 1930 – 24 April 1980) was a Kalinga leader of the Butbut tribe in the Cordillera Administrative Region on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, who was assassinated for his opposition to the Chico River Dam Project.

Biography

Dulag was a chieftain) in the highland village of Bugnay, Tinglayan, Kalinga-Apayao. A farmer by profession, Dulag was also a road maintenance worker for the Department of Public Works and Highways. He staunchly opposed construction of the Chico Dam, a hydroelectric project along the Chico River proposed by President Ferdinand E. Marcos' government and was to be funded by the World Bank.

Indigenous peoples in the area, including the Kalinga and the Bontoc, resisted the project for three decades as the proposed dam's reservoir threatened to drown 1,400 square-kilometres of traditional highland villages and ancestral domains in the modern-day provinces of Mountain Province, Kalinga and Apayao.

On 24 April 1980, elements from 4th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army opened fire on Dulag at his home, killing him and wounding a companion. His murder unified the various peoples of the Cordillera Mountains against the proposed dam, causing both the World Bank and the Marcos regime to eventually abandon the project a few years after.

Commemoration

The date of Dulag's death is unofficially observed as "Cordillera Day" annually by indigenous communities along the Chico River.

Dulag's name is also inscribed in the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of the Heroes) in Quezon City, Metro Manila, which is dedicated to victims of extrajudicial killings since the Martial Law era.

References

• A HISTORY OF RESISTANCE VS BIG DAMS
• 20 Years of Cordillera Day, A Historic Testament to the Resolute Cordillera Peoples’ Struggle Bulatlat.com
• Dulag's biography on the website of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani