By Joel B. Belinan
Last Saturday, one of the stalwarts of the movement for Cordillera Autonomy, Mr. Fernando Bahatan Jr., left his physical body. He was more popularly known as the Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBAd) executive officer and was one of the few people along with the late Fr. Conrado Balweg that sparked the clamor for Cordillera Regional Autonomy that started in the 80s. His death makes even fewer the number of people in that group who are still alive. Per the social media, he died at the Baguio General Hospital.
Sir Jun and I came to know each other in 1996 when I was a neophyte media practitioner and started writing about Cordillera affairs especially relative to autonomy. As one of the people closest to the late Fr. Balweg, he became one of my regular news sources at that time. One of the most memorable times I had with him as a news source was during the immediate aftermath of the plebiscite for the second organic act in March 1998 aimed at establishing the Cordillera Regional Autonomy. As history already recorded, the Cordillera people overwhelmingly rejected for the second time the proposed autonomy law. Advocates for autonomy had all those analyses as to the cause of the rejection while the anti-autonomy people were gloating.
No more than one week after that plebiscite, there was a Press Conference attended by the government officials who were at the forefront of the campaign for autonomy, particularly a technocrat who was the presidential assistant for the Cordillera, the head of the Cordillera bodies (CEB, CRA) and the CBA/CPLA represented by Dir. Bahatan. At the start of the press conference, Dir. Bahatan took the microphone and said, much as I don’t like reading this statement of our group, referring to the CBA/CPLA, but I was tasked to do it, he said with much hesitation. The statement when he read turned out to be a statement of direct condemnation and allegations against the Presidential Assistant (PA) whom I don’t like to name here.
The group alleged that the PA was actually an anti-autonomy advocate but disguisef to be for autonomy and they alleged that he has (the PA) been using his office to sabotage the autonomy dream. Of course, the PA vehemently denied it. That was one of the very rare instances that I saw Sir Jun in a fighting mode, his personality being very kind and soft-spoken. When performing his assigned task by his group, he did it regardless of his sentiment on the issue. There were many occasions that I and Sir Jun attended relative to autonomy and other Cordillera issues, but for me the most memorable things are the numerous documents he gave me as a reference for the hundreds of stories, if not thousands, that I wrote about autonomy and other Cordillera matters. In 1999, Sir Jun opted to retire from the CBAd. I don’t know if he was tired or frustrated by the turn of events. He was succeeded by Lawyer Nestor Atitiw who left his otherwise promising career at the Office of the Solicitor General. Sir Jun then applied and got appointed as Provincial Director of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Ifugao, his Home Province where he retired from government service later.
Talking of Autonomy, it seems that there have been no updates on the progress of the proposed bill in Congress. It should be noted that as early as November last year, the House Committee on Local Governments had already passed the bill. The Committee referred it to the House Committee on Finance to look at the budgetary needs of the bill before it would be presented to the House plenary for approval on 3rd reading. On the other hand, we have not heard if there is any senator who has filed a counterpart bill in the Senate. We are hoping to hear any good news relative to this and that would be a good send-off for Sir Jun.
On the Other hand, we also hope that the remaining CBAd/CPLA stalwarts who are still alive will be able to hold on much longer with the hope that the dream for Cordillera Autonomy will ultimately be attained. **
