MANILA – Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza has urged the people of the Cordillera region to unite and work hard to finally achieve their overarching goal of regional autonomy.
“You must have to see to it that you have to work together despite having different kinds of tribes and aspirations. Everybody must come around,” Dureza told leaders of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in a forum with senators at the Century Park Hotel here Friday.
He said unity amid diversity is crucial to avoid previous attempts, when Cordillerans rejected the bid for regional autonomy twice through plebiscites in 1995 and 1998.
“It’s not late. As Senators Koko (Pimentel) and JV (Ejercito) said: ‘There must be something that we must do,’” he said.
He urged the CAR’s Regional Development Council (RDC) to help lawmakers in crafting an autonomous region that is inclusive.
“It must be inclusive because as we all know that Cordillera has different kinds of tribes. Others have their own world. You cannot convert their worlds into one. We must have to allow that diversity, respect the diversity that we have,” he explained.
Dureza advised Cordillera autonomy advocates to know better the character of each tribe and understand why it is different.
“We must accept that we are all different and that we can be united in diversity. Diversity is a key word that you must work together,” he said.
However, Dureza told them not to expect too much that they must work together “but everybody must take the effort to do it.”
He expressed hope that both Senate Bill No. 1678 and House of Representatives Bill No. 5343 seeking the creation of the Autonomous Region of the Cordillera (ARC) will be passed through the help of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“It must be certified as urgent,” he said, thanking the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office for “pushing for it.”
Dureza said the government is very supportive of Cordillera’s bid for autonomy “because it is provided in the Constitution.”
He said he hopes that the recently-enacted Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) would serve as a template to address the aspiration of the Cordillerans to have their own autonomous region.
“We hope we will continue to be united, continue to make the noise, make your presence felt so that you will not be ignored but I’m sure you (will) not be ignored because it is your right under the Constitution to have your autonomous region in the Cordillera,” Dureza said.
Like the Bangsamoro people in Mindanao, the Cordillera people have indicated a unified desire to go first for regional autonomy while awaiting the shift of the government from unitary to federalism.
Since 2006, the Cordillera Regional Development Plan has considered regional autonomy as its overarching goal.
The RDC-CAR has boosted its campaign by implementing the Special Preparation of the CAR into an Autonomous Region (SPCAR) program.
SPCAR aims to increase awareness and support through information, education and communication; gather and solidify support through alliance building; and carry out capability building for each local government unit in support of the program.
The creation of autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras is enshrined in Section 15 of Article X of the 1987 Constitution. (Jelly Musico/PNA)
