By Joel B. Belinan
The title “What now Cordillera?” came to mind as the news of the Lower House of Congress creating some noise on Charter Change, though it’s very remote that a Charter Change initiative now can get a counterpart measure in the Senate.
Every time the issue on Charter Change and Federalism become the center of the discussions in congress or in other halls of power, any Cordilleran should become alert. Personally I always have mixed feelings whenever these topics come up as it can either threaten the present administrative status of the region or it might finally attain an autonomous status. Since the start of the Duterte administration the push for charter change especially changing the country’s centralized government to federal-parliamentary have long been reverberating around. It was strongest during the time of President Ramos.
Those proponents in the Lower House are saying that only the restrictive and protective economic provisions of the 1987 charter will be amended. For instance, provisions that limit the capital share of foreigners to 40 percent maximum of companies that extract natural resources, and the total ban on their ownership of media outfits and real property.
Is it bad or good? If these are removed, highly capitalized foreign entities will have a heyday exploiting our natural resources and smaller domestic corporations will have no chance to compete and will go bankrupt. If foreigners are also allowed to wholly own media firms, they will be able to brainwash the population or have control over those in power. As to real estate which is very valuable to Filipinos, this country is small that big foreign companies can dominate and control market forces and make prices of land unreachable to Juan dela Cruz.
So for all its flaws and defects, the 1987 constitution’s protective provisions against foreign capital dominance and the provision for the creation of autonomous regions in the Cordillera and Muslim Mindanao should be retained. For me, it will be better if what should be amended are those political provisions like the probable shift from the present centralized presidential to a parliamentary-federal form of government.
But be warned, there’s a danger there as far as the Cordillera is concerned. If what they will use as basis for such constitutional shift is the proposed federal constitution prepared by the Duterte appointed Constitutional Commission headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, the Cordillera is not listed as a separate state. What did the congressmen of the Cordillera do regarding that? I have not heard much.
Of late, not much news had been heard about our push for the Cordillera Autonomy Bill that is currently pending in the Lower House and also in the senate. In the case of the senate, while it is true that a proposed bill had been filed by Senator Zubiri, the practice is that a bill of local significance must first come from the Lower House and that the Senate will just pass it. I only came across one news about the statement of Congressman Sonny Mangaoang of Kalinga that he would try to have the Autonomy Bill be passed before the end of the current congress.
While I am not pessimistic about it, unless there would be some kind of a miracle the Autonomy Bill will not be passed by this Congress. With all the supposed statements of support from national officials especially the president at the start of the present administration, it appears that the Cordillera is not in their agenda. Ours cannot be like Mindanao that can create trouble. As our late Mng. Modax would always say, the Cordillera is always the Good Son and Mindanao is the prodigal son. But instead of addressing also the problem of the good son they forgot about it and only focused on the prodigal son. We do not do anything like the MILF, MNLF, BIFF, Abu Sayaf and Maute-ISIS group that can create trouble. In fact, the once resistant group here, the CPLA had been reduced to an unknown group or, in many instances, just a petty militia with several factions that are irritants to many especially in Baguio City and nearby towns. As to the remnants of that group that shed blood and negotiated for the creation of the present Cordillera Administrative Region, based on the information I got, they are actually now embarking with the national government on the last phase of a program that will assist the families of those combatants and their communities in the form of livelihood projects, among others. After that, the CPLA will totally cease to exist in the radar of the government.
Meantime only very few of those CBA-CPLA elders in the 70s and early 80s are still alive and hoping that before they breathe their last, they would see an Autonomous Cordillera Region. These include Ama Patrick Ganggangan (yes, the Father of Sadanga Mayor Gabino Ganggangan), former CBA Executive Officer Fernando Bahatan Jr., Ka Mando “Musling” Bun-as, Dexter Garado (AKA Ka Sungar), and perhaps a few others.
So what now Cordillera? **
