Dumagat chieftain Cipriano Dela Torre fears that the forest will turn out to be commercialized as soon as the brand new thoroughfare makes it extra accessible to outsiders. As locals face stress to promote the land to builders, Dela Torre warns his folks that someday “the one the rest of the land that was theirs could possibly be the mud on their toes.”
Tribal leaders say they imagine the federal government has capitulated to company and political pursuits, particularly because the native residents, numbering fewer than 1,000, hardly want such a large street. Members of the tribe say they don’t seem to be against growth, however imagine that Indigenous individuals, not settlers, ought to set the phrases of progress.