Baguio City- The Cordillera Peoples Liberation (CPLA) and the Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBA) whose members came from the “Lumbaya Company” on September 13, 1986 signed with the government a peace agreement of what is now known as the Mount Data Peace Accord for the immediate creation and organization of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) through the issuance of Executive Order No. 220 issued by former President Corazon Aquino in July 15, 1987. The CAR was supposed to prepare the region for autonomy.
EO 220 created also the CAR bodies compose of the Cordillera Executive Board (CEB) which was the development body and implementing arm of the region and the Cordillera Regional Assembly which was the policy making body. The Cordillera Bodong Administration was a commission under CAR.
In a position paper presented to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) and the Cordillera Bodong Administration together with the Cordillera Basic Sector Congress asked the President for the immediate reactivation of the CAR bodies that will pursue the quest for autonomy and other goals of the executive order.
Mailed G. Molina, chairman of the CPLA informed the President that the deactivation of the CAR bodies since year 2000 was a setback of our common goal of mainstreaming and addressing the peace and development concerns of the Cordillera peoples as agreed upon and embodied in the peace accord.
Molina appealed to the President that reactivation of the CAR bodies whose composition comes from representatives of the various ethno-linguistic groups in the region will likewise operationalize his vision of federalism. Molina said that the Cordilleras has long been practicing a federal set-up of a government through its cherished customs and traditions like the Bodong system, Moyong system, Dap-ay system, etc.
Jude G. Wal former CEB director discussed to the President that among the major functions of the CAR bodies is to prepare the region for the establishment of autonomy. He presented in detail the CAR structure as provided for under EO 220, the specifics of the required funding support that would allow the representative bodies to fully function and come up with a people centered mechanism with due regard to the unique customs and traditions of the region.
Conrado T. Dieza Jr., co-convenor of Task Force Reactivation of CAR Bodies towards Federalism, said that the posiiton paper presented to President Duterte is a result of a series of sectoral consultations throughout the Cordillera among Tribal Leaders, Tribal Chieftains, Councils of Elders, Religious Groups, Rebel Returnees, civic and non-government organizations, transport cooperatives, student and youth groups, Overseas Filipino Workers in the region, etc.
Dieza handed a formal invitation to President Duterte to be the guest of honor and speaker during the Cordillera Regional Summit scheduled next month in the City of Baguio.
On the other hand, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, who chairs the RDC-CAR and the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) in the Cordillera, said the proposed reactivation of the CAR bodies, particularly the Cordillera Executive Board (CEB), Cordillera Regional Assembly (CRA), and the Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBA), will surely take some time and could be overtaken by events, especially in the region’s renewed quest for autonomy and the planned shift to a federal form of government by the present administration.
“We hope that those who are pushing for the reactivation of the CAR bodies will join the RDC-CAR and other autonomy advocates in aggressively advocating for the enactment of the proposed bill mandating the establishment of the autonomous region in the Cordillera,” Domogan stressed.
While it is true that the CAR bodies had not been actually abolished, the local chief executive explained it was Congress that technically abolished their existence after it did not provide the budget to sustain their past operations.
He added, the assets and liabilities of the CAR bodies were also liquidated and now under the Office of the President. Their proposed reactivation will be solely dependent on the actions of the President and Congress, which to date is unlikely.
After the disbandment of the CAR bodies, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 18, series of 2001 that created the RDC-CAR defining its functions that included the duties and responsibilities of the CAR bodies.
The technical abolition of the CAR bodies was questioned by concerned sectors before the Supreme Court (SC) but the High Court upheld the power of Congress in providing for the budget of agencies which deserve to be allocated funds for their operations, among others.
However, the SC ruled in the same case that it is hoped Congress will be able to enact an autonomy law that will be acceptable to the Cordillerans to realize the constitutional provision that mandates the establishment of autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordillera.
Congress was constrained to provide the CAR bodies a P1 budget because the former CEB, CAR and CBA officials had been engaged in petty bickering that allegedly contributed to the derailment of efforts of the region to achieve autonomy, considering that the former officials were busy exchanging accusations instead of concentrating their efforts to inform and educate the people on the importance of the region’s achieving an autonomous status.
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