As the board of directors prepared to meet inside, activists rallied outside the Export-Import Bank of Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday, protesting the organization's plan to resume funding for a controversial dam in the Philippines.

Representatives of nongovernmental organizations and an indigenous Filipino campaigner handed out leaflets and displayed a placard opposing the San Roque multipurpose dam being built on the Agno River in Pangasinan Province on Luzon island with money from the Ex-Im Bank and seven Japanese commercial banks.

Romeo Pocding of the Cordillera People's Alliance -- a Philippine group that fights to protect the resources of indigenous people -- and others say the project is riddled with unresolved issues and it is premature for the financial organ to reopen the flow of funds.