BAGUIO CITY-– Both the draft Constitution that the Consultative Committee (ConCom) and House Bill 5343 or the Cordillera autonomy bill have the same stand that there shall be no regional peacekeeping force.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan, who chairs the Regional Development Council (RDC) in a late afternoon press conference on Wednesday, reiterated that the bill now pending before the committee in the House of Representatives does not provide for the creation of a regional peacekeeping force.
He said this to belie information that once the region becomes an autonomous region or a federal region upon the ratification of the Constitution giving way for a shift to federalism, the peace and order as well as the security of the Cordillera will be handled by a regional security force.
He explained that what is embodied in the House bill is for the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to handle the matter. This, he said, conforms to the draft Constitution that the ConCom will transmit to President Duterte before he delivers his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on the third Monday of July.
Domogan said: “I am sorry if there were those who were deceived by some groups promoting themselves, recruiting members enticing people to join and will become the regional security force but it is not true.”
He said the RDC did not ask for it, nor is it sought in the draft Constitution.
The mayor relayed what Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya of the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Center for Federalism and Constitutional Reform said that “this is an issue that President Duterte made clear even to Bangsamoro, that there shall be no regional peacekeeping force”.
He reiterated that when he was congressman, together with ConCom member lawyer Laurence Wacnang, the House had set aside PHP94 million for the integration of the qualified members of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army into the AFP as well as a livelihood fund for the members of the group who cannot be integrated. (Liza Agoot/PNA)
