By Joel B. Belinan
July 15, 2021 marks the 34th year since Executive Order (EO) 220 was signed by then-President Corazon Aquino in 1987. At that time, she held the executive and legislative powers of the country under the Revolutionary Government. Take note that President Aquino was catapulted to the presidency due to the success of the EDSA revolt and subsequently she declared a revolutionary government pending the drafting and ratification of a new constitution. After 34 years, what would have been the Cordillera situation if EO220 had not been signed or promulgated?
After all these years, let me present a different view of EO 220 and its impact on our region but first let us walk through the facts. The signing of EO 220 was of course due to the lobby of the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) and its political wing, the Cordillera Bodong Administration. As many among the older folks know, the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region was borne out of the Mt. Data Peace Agreement signed by the Aquino government and the CBA/CPLA on Sept.13, 1986, or a year earlier. Even the inclusion of the provision that provides for the establishment of a Cordillera Autonomous Region was the product of that agreement. While it is true also that the left leaning Cordillera Peoples Alliance was also in the forefront in lobbying the Constitutional commissioners of the 1987 constitution to provide for the establishment of an autonomous Cordillera.
The signing of EO220 was advanced from its original schedule which was for a later date. The reason was the already very fragile situation in the entire Cordillera caused by the death of eight high-ranking CPLA commanders in Abra on June 23, 1987. Father Conrado Balweg, the founder and chief of the CPLA was in a convoy of two passenger jeeps with his troopers who came from a peace talk with their former New People’s Army comrades in Malibcong, Abra when they were ambushed and eight of his commanders perished. The entire CPLA was very restless the following days as they had a very strong suspicion that the Ambush was instigated by the military. As narrated by a veteran journalist who was present during the wake of the eight CPLA commanders at the Cordillera House located in front of the Mansion House here in Baguio City, the atmosphere was very fragile and that the peace agreement signed earlier in Mt. Data Hotel was on the verge of collapse even before it became one year old.
This accordingly prompted the senior advisers of President Cory Aquino to present EO220 for signing which the President signed on July 17 to appease the Balweg group. EO 220 carved out the Provinces of Mountain Province, Benguet, and the City of Baguio from Region I and the Provinces of Kalinga-Apayao and Ifugao from Region II or re-grouping the Old Mountain Province again plus the province of Abra to compose the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). Along with it was the creation of the Cordillera Executive Board (CEB) and Cordillera Regional Assembly (CRA) and all the various regional line agencies to prepare for the establishment of the Cordillera Autonomous Region as provided for in the new constitution. Unfortunately, in 1990 during the presentation of the first organic act for ratification, the people of the Cordillera overwhelmingly rejected it with only the province of Ifugao voting for it. The reason was that the OA was completely a watered-down version of the result of consultations with the people. The same thing happened in 1998 when the second organic act was presented with only the Province of Apayao voting for it.
Now, what if there was no EO220? According to the opinion of Dexter Garado (AKA Ka Sungar) who was once the deputy chief of Balweg in the CPLA, the creation of CAR under the EO220 may have unwittingly stopped or delayed for more than three decades already the establishment of a Cordillera Autonomous Region. This he said is because the Cordillera People especially the majority of its leaders became complacent that they felt there was no more need for Autonomous Region as long as the CAR provinces and the City of Baguio were able to get out from Regions I and II. It should be noted that Cordillerans before the creation of the CAR had to go down to the lowlands for any need from various regional offices and where, aside from the inconvenience, they also suffered discrimination. I tend to agree with Ka Sungar’s reading of EO220.
While the intent was good the result was negative to the autonomy cause. Having personally witnessed and had even been part of the campaign for ratification of the two failed organic acts, we have heard very strong arguments from those against autonomy. Why fix something that is not broken? We are already together in one region. Why do we have to become autonomous and risk entering a set-up we don’t know if it will be good for us? Such were comments we usually heard which in most cases were out of ignorance of the fact that the CAR is temporary and that we may disintegrate again. And in many instances, such were just ammunition from those who from the very start were against autonomy due to their vested interests. Looking at the Mindanao situation, the first time they presented the Organic Act for the establishment of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, five provinces immediately embraced it and that paved the establishment of the ARMM in 1990. This was because they had no set-up like what EO 220 provided that made them complacent.
Moving from where we are now, we just hope that the proposed 3rd organic act will be passed into law. However, Ka Sungar said that he hopes that our Lawmakers especially the Cordillera congressmen would make sure that the 3rd organic act shall include a provision that any province in the Cordillera including the City of Baguio that will fail to ratify it will have to go back to the lowland region where it came from before the establishment of the CAR. It is only in this manner that we will be able to overturn the effect of EO220 and the jinx of our failure to establish our dream of an autonomous region, he said. **
