BAGUIO CITY — Cordillera lawmakers and autonomy advocates were elated over the overwhelming support by the people of Baguio and Benguet to the proposed establishment of an autonomous region of the Cordillera during a public consultation conducted here on Thursday afternoon.
The Cordillera lawmakers are pushing for House Bill 5343, which seeks to establish Cordillera’s autonomous government ahead of the Duterte government’s planned shift to a federal form of government from the present unitary presidential government.
Hundreds of barangay officials, line agencies and local government representatives, cause-oriented groups, civil society organizations, academe, and youth groups expressed their support to the region’s renewed quest for autonomy during the initial public consultation conducted by the Cordillera congressmen.
The public consultation was authorized by the House committee on local government chaired by Cotabato 1st District Representative Pedro Acharon Jr.
The proponents said the same consultation, which will also be done in Kalinga, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Apayao, and Abra, aims to gather inputs from different sectors for proposals to amend, change, add, delete, revise or reword the contents of the House Bill to be more appropriate and applicable to the current situation and best for the region.
Baguio Rep. Mark Go said the overwhelming support of the concerned public and private sectors in Baguio and Benguet was a good start for the series of public consultations that would be done regionwide, before Congress resumes sessions next month after its Holy Week break.
Go said the Cordillera congressmen would urge the House committee on local government to include the bill for committee deliberations, and referral to the House committee on appropriations and committee on rules prior to the plenary debates.
Go said the lawmakers are targeting the enactment of the proposed autonomy bill before the scheduled filing of the certificates of candidacy for the May 2019 mid-term elections.
“We hope to beat our prescribed deadline so that we will be able to move on for the conduct of the information education campaign on the contents of the autonomy bill and the plebiscite for its ratification by the people,” Go stressed.
Benguet Rep. Ronald Cosalan said it is important for Cordillerans to be united towards a common position, which should be autonomy first towards federalism because the planned shift to a federal form of government might take a little more time, while the region’s renewed quest for autonomy has its constitutional basis.
“We hope that President Rodrigo Duterte will still issue the awaited certification to keep the bill moving in both chambers of Congress,” Cosalan said.
Kalinga Rep. and Mountain Province caretaker-congressman Allen Jesse Mangaoang said the initial results of the public consultation in Baguio and Benguet should serve as the benchmark in the upcoming consultations to be undertaken by the congressmen in the different parts of the region in the next several weeks.
Mangaoang said this could make their fellow congressmen consider prioritizing the passage of the proposed autonomy law side by side with the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
Mangaoang said Cordillera congressmen took the initiative of conducting the public consultations in their areas of jurisdiction to continue gathering the sentiments of the people on how to further improve the provisions of the bill, so that it would effectively and efficiently address anticipated problems once the autonomous region is in place.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said Cordillerans are supportive of the administration’s planned shift to a federal form of government, but equally important is the region’s clamor for autonomy towards federalism, so the region would not be left out in case of realignment of provinces under a federal government.
While the present administration has not yet finalized the mode of federalism that should be adopted, Domogan said it is important that the region remains united and intact once federalism takes place.
Domogan, who also chairs the Regional Development Council (RDC) and the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC), explained that once federalism is in place ahead of the autonomy, there would be a greater chance for the local governments in the region to be mixed with much bigger and heavily populated provinces in Northern Luzon, which would again result in the marginalization of Cordillerans.
He said there is a proposal to make Tuguegarao City in Cagayan the Northern Luzon State under a federal Philippines.
Numerous position papers strongly supporting the immediate enactment of the proposed autonomy law were submitted by different public and private sector organizations, which were present in the public consultation.
The public consultation aims to drum beat the discussion of autonomy among Cordillerans, so they would be enlightened on the issue.(PNA)
