GOOD MORNING TO ALL

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GOOD MORNING TO ALL WELCOME TO OUR
SHARING SESSION ON
THE MEANING OF AUTONOMY IN THE CORDILLERAS
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Twenty-two years ago, On 15 July 1987, a new
politico-geographic subdivision of the
Philippines known as the Cordillera
Administrative Region, was created through EO
220.
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This new region was christened by the newly
formed government (1986) of the Filipino People,
as the Cordillera Administrative Region, a
name that conforms to the rugged Cordillera
Mountain Range that is occupied by the six (6)
provincial indigenous peoples communities and
one (1) urban Baguio community comprising the
region.
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It is composed of the sub-provinces under the
American colonial eras old Mountain Province
namely Bontoc, Ifugao, Benguet w/ Baguio City,
Apayao, Kalinga plus the adjacent province of
Abra.
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All six (6) provinces have something in common.
They were occupied since time immemorial by
peoples who were infieles to the Spanish
colonialists who failed to subjugate them and
non-Christian tribes to the American
colonialists who succeeded the Spaniards.
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To the lowland Filipinos, the peoples in the
Cordillera Mountains are I-golots -meaning
people from the highlands according to
historian William Henry Scott.
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These I-golots or IGOROTS lived in their
Cordillera Mountain habitats without any outside
assistance through the 300 years of Spanish
colonization into the American period using what
is now called their Indigenous knowledge systems
and practices (IKSP).
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The Spaniards who first entered the Cordilleras
wrote in 1870 about the I-GOLOTS (IKSP)
like the practice of producing rice in fully
irrigated terraces on the mountain slopes of
Kabayan on the east, Kapangan on the West in
Benguet Province, and in Quiangan now known as
Ifugao Province. (Scott, 1974).
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What prompted the Manila government to create
the Cordillera Administrative Region in 1987
ahead of the autonomous Region?
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• To buy peace for the new (1986) President Cory
  Aquino government to establish itself.
• And to prepare for the establishment of the
  autonomous region in the Cordilleras

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Before Pres. Cory Aquino assumed office in 1986 a
rebellion that started in the 1970s was going on
in the Cordilleras, similar to those waged in
Mindanao by the MNLF(now the MILF) against the
Manila government, because of its CelloPhil
project in Abra and its program to build
hydro-electric dams on the Chico River Systems.
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The Cordillera Peoples saw the eventual
annihilation of their riverside communities
along the Abra and Chico Rivers like what
happened to the Benguet peoples communities in
Ambuclao and Binga where the two hydro-electric
dams were built 20 years earlier in the 1950s.
The Benguet People lost to the flooded dams
their widest and most agriculturally productive
river deltas that supplied their food for
centuries.
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Worst of all, the hundreds of displaced families
were flooded out of their communities without a
government relocation program thereby rendering
these Ambuclao Binga families homeless,
unemployed, impoverished, and by being forced to
relocate separately, they lost their commonly
shared cultures and traditions as a people.
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The Ambuclao Binga dams had no relocation
plans for the displaced families thereby
rendering them homeless, unemployed, impoverished
and without their commonly shared culture and
Traditions. It flooded thousands of hectares of
the Benguet Peoples most productive agricultural
land that provided them food for centuries.
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The post-WWII Philippine history also shows that
the manila government was almost toppled by a
HUK-CPP rebellion. This is aside from the
long-standing Bangsa Moro war for Independence in
Mindanao. Also, two Christian-led groups (Canoy
1986/Noble 1990) calling themselves the
Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM) attempted to
establish a Federal Republic of Mindanao
independent from Imperial Manila.
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What caused these rebellions and separatist
movements by the rural-dwelling Philippine
citizens against the Manila government?
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REVIEW OF KEY ISSUES

• The issue of the HUKS nationwide was land for
  the landless masses in the rural areas (1946)
• The issue of the Christian led Federal Republic
  of Mindanao (Canoy/Noble) is the neglect of the
  development other needs of the peoples in
  Mindanao by the imperial Manila government.(mid
  1980s/1990)
• The issues of the Cordillera Peoples are the
  government sanctioned exploitation of resources
  that resulted in marginalizing, impoverishing,
  displacing communities, and annihilating their
  cultures.(1900s)

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All these rebellions /independence movements
arose from the rural-dwelling Philippine citizens
in Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon
These rebellions of the rural-dwelling
Philippine citizens are against social economic
inequity, and discriminatory policies, programs
and projects decided and implemented by the
Manila government.
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How will dividing the country into regions
resolve these issues that cause rebellions and
independence movements?
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According to experts , over-centralized
development planning and programming at the
national level, is likely to lose sight of many
important local factors that the people in the
field or at grassroots level can appreciate
better and incorporate in their formulation of
local development plans.
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There also is the basic principle enunciated
among community organizers and development
agents that each sector of society has a
different perception of development, and have
different priorities, needs, and aspirations.
The ethnic groups the religious the rich,
middle class, and the poor the rural and urban
communities the miners, farmers, merchants
employees and employers the professionals, all
differ in their perceptions, priorities, needs,
and aspirations.
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Regional development coordination that operates
midway between national and local development
planning and programming will help to minimize
the errors of either too much macro or too much
micro- development thinking. Regional
development coordination has a better chance to
evaluate both the national and local level
scenarios.
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HOW WILL AUTONOMY aside from REGIONAL
development coordination HELP RESOLVE the ISSUES
RAISED BY THE REBELIOUS RURAL-DWELLING PHILIPPINE
CITIZENS
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To Political scientists autonomy means
self-government or self-rule.
In the extreme case it means independence or
sovereignty that is one of the major elements
of a STATE.
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Autonomy in the Region means self-government in
the region. Decisions on development policies,
programs, and projects for the region will be
made by the regional and local officials.
Hence, the development priorities, needs, and
aspirations of the people in the region will be
better reflected in their development plans.
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What is autonomy in the Cordilleras
The Phil. Constitution granted autonomy in
Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras it did
not grant independence like what the Mindanao
people, both Christians and Muslim want.
According to political scientists Independence
or sovereignty is earned by whoever enjoys the
status it is not granted by anyone.
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Autonomy in the cordilleras means self-rule or
self-governance in the Cordillera Region.
The limits of that Regional self-rule or
self-governance are stated in general terms in
Sec. 20, Art. X of the 1987 Philippine
Constitution. The specifics will be spelled out
in the Charter of the Autonomous Region in the
Cordilleras.
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WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO CREATE REGIONS?
In the 1970s Pres. Ferdinand Marcos ordered the
decentralization of the executive branch of
government from its over-centralization in what
Sen. Pimentel calls imperial Manila.
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Pres. Marcos divided the country into 12 regions
for coordinating regional development.
He made 3 regions autonomous namely the
autonomous Regions 9 12 in Mindanao and
Metro-Manila, or two rural and one urban
autonomous unit.
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WHAT ARE THE POWERS GRANTED BY THE PHIL.
CONSTITUTION TO AUTONOMOUS REGIONS IN THE
COUNTRY
THESE ARE ENUMERATED IN SEC. 20, ARTICLE X .
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
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Section 20 of the Philippine Constitution of 1987
provides thus Within its territorial
jurisdiction and subject to the provisions of
this Constitution and national laws, the organic
act of autonomous regions shall provide for
legislative powers over (1) Administrative
organization (2) Creation of sources of
revenues (3) Ancestral domain and natural
resources (4) Personal, family, and property
relations (5) Regional urban and rural planning
development (6) Economic, social, and tourism
development (7) Educational policies (8)
Preservation and development of the cultural
heritage and (9) Such other matters as may be
authorized by law for the promotion of the
general welfare of the people of the region.
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According to these provisions the regional
government can Decide and formulate its own
development policies, goals, objectives with
the corresponding programs projects to attain
these in relation to
(5) Regional urban and rural planning
development (6) Economic, social, and tourism
development (7) Educational policies (with the
IPRA provisions) (8) Preservation and development
of the cultural heritage and (9) Such other
matters as may be authorized by law for the
promotion of the general welfare of the people
of the region.
The regional government can design its own (1)
Administrative organization and the (2)
Creation of sources of revenues And the
regional government can manage its (3) Ancestral
domain and natural resources (4) Personal,
family, and property relations (aided by the
IPRA provisions since autonomy recognition of
IP rights are both provided for in the
Constitution)
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What is the difference between the present
CORDILLERA ADMINISTRATIVE REGION and the
AUTONOMOUS REGION IN THE CORDILLERAS?
The present Cordillera Administrative Region is
temporary. (a) It does not have a governing
structure, (b) it has no powers of
self-governance. -- The decisions on development
policies, programs and projects including
priorities will continue to be done by imperial
Manila for the people in the region.
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In the Autonomous Region in the Cordilleras
(a) There will be a regional governing body with
regional officials chosen by the Cordillera
peoples themselves. (b) Because it will be
self-governing the challenges to the Cordillera
peoples or IGOLOTS and their chosen leaders
will be nothing short of being tremendous.
The immediate challenge will be for them to
showcase democratic living - re-discovering
the indigenous norms, values , and practices,
that made the tong-tongan, the hapit di
na-nomnoman, or the ator, and such other
institutions that served them well in past to
serve them now in their present modernizing
communities
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In the Autonomous Region in the Cordilleras
The Cordillera peoples will have to invent ways
and means to face the challenge s of sustained
economic development with ecological balance,
while pursuing the continuing improvement in the
quality of life choices of their growing
communities whose growing numbers and needs will
challenge their innovativeness and leadership.
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IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE CHOICES (Improving
food, shelter, clothing, health, education,
social-life, socio-cultural amenities)


STABLE PURCHASING POWER
PROPER VALUES ATTITUDES RELEVANT, RESPONSIVE EDU
CATION
ACCEPTABLE PUBLIC HEALTH CONDITIONS
GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT (Livelihood Sources)
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES (Jobs/Self-employment)
COMPETENT HONEST ADMINISTRATION (National,
Regional, Local Governments, Non- Government
Organizations)
CLIMATE CONDUCIVE TO INVESTMENT
APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
AVAILABLE RESOURCES (Human, Institutional,
Natural, Financial, Infra,)
DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES TO THE REGIONAL
GOVERNMENT
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In the Autonomous Region in the Cordilleras
Above all else, the IGOLOTS or Philippine
citizens in the Cordilleras with their leaders
will be measured as to whether or not they have
succumbed beyond the point of redemption, to the
prevalent moral decay that has plagued this
long-subjugated and colonized Philippine society.

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Thank you for your attention.