BAGUIO CITY, Aug. 13 — Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Saturday said the agency will extend its support to the quest for the Cordillera Administrative Region’s (CAR) autonomy by allowing the use of its media infrastructures for the dissemination of information to the grassroots.
During the meeting with Cordillera leaders and members of the Regional Development Council (RDC) at the Baguio Country Club, he said PCOO will support Cordillera through the Provincial Communications Officers Network (PCO Net) for disseminating information that will help achieve the region’s clamor for an autonomous region.
Andanar also said that there are different media platforms owned and managed by the government that operates in the Cordillera which the RDC can link with to help them disseminate information. The People’s Television (PTV) is expected to have a full-blast operation within the year; there is also the Radyo Pilipinas which is located in Baguio, Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Abra; the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) and the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Andanar also committed to helping bring to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte the call of the region for him to certify as urgent the Cordillera Organic Act which is pending in Congress. Its passage will lead to the scheduling of the plebiscite where the region’s voters will decide in a vote to approve or reject autonomy for the region.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan briefed Andanar and said that the quest for Cordillera autonomy is provided for in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which specifically states that: “There shall be created autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras consisting of provinces, cities, municipalities, and geographical areas sharing common and distinctive historical and cultural heritage, economic and social structures, and other relevant characteristics within the framework of this Constitution and the national sovereignty as well as territorial integrity of the Republic of the Philippines.”
Domogan said “our clamor for autonomy is achievable and what we want is the decentralization of power, authority, and independence to govern ourselves and natural resources,” aside from the region’s leaders fully supportive of the shift from Cordillera administrative region to autonomous region.
Domogan also mentioned his support to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s plan to shifting from unitary form of government to a federal form, which is the same as the autonomy that the region is pushing for.
He, as well as other local chief executives, are one in saying that they are for autonomy towards federalism.
PCOO Assistant Secretary Marie Banaag, who was also present during the event, said the RDC should come up with a communication system, a design on how to do the information campaign to be able to reach the grassroots level.(Nestor Castañeda Jr./ PNA)
