The peaceful resolution of a conflict surrounding the Ambuklao-Binga Dam project is the theme of a documentary that spotlights the United Nations (UN) experience in resolving differences.
Entitled “Dialogue at Ambuklao and Binga,” the short film premiered at UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 15. It will be shown later in the Philippines and uploaded on the Internet.
Under professor John Ruggie as special representative of the Secretary General for Business and Human Rights, the UN documented on film the Philippine model of conflict resolution in the Ambuklao-Binga Dam project.
The screening was attended by Norwegian Ambassador Bente Angell-Hansen and Annabelle T. Abaya, founder and president of Conflict Resolution (CoRe) Group Foundation Inc. and presidential adviser on the peace process in the Arroyo administration.
The film was put together by a team from Harvard and American and British producers.
It tells of the mediation process that involved the communities affected by the Ambuklao and Binga dams’ construction in Benguet in the 1950s, the National Power Corp., SN Aboitiz, the company to which the hydroelectric power plants were privatized, and the local government units.
The privatization awakened historical tensions and a desire among the communities to seek redress for what they perceived to be wrongs in the past, Abaya said in a press statement.
The communities filed a complaint with the World Bank’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) given that the International Finance Corp. was providing the funds for the privatization.
Following CAO’s assessment of the complaint, the stakeholders agreed to a mediated dialogue, overseen by Abaya, that resulted in a memorandum of agreement among the parties in May 2009, after just seven months of talking.