DAR urged: Bolster agrarian reform program Cordillera execs up activities to make region autonomous

BAGUIO CITY – The Regional Development Council is now going full-blast in activities to make the Cordillera autonomous. Last week, the RDC urged Agrarian Reform Sec. Nasser Pangandaman to recognize and affirm the region’s “manifestation of solidarity with and commitment of support to the pursuit of Cordillera regional autonomy as an integral component of the agency’s mandate of advancing agrarian reform and rural development in the region.”

The RDC, to fulfill the 1987 constitutional provision on establishment of a Cordillera Autonomous Region, has intensified pursuit of regional autonomy through sampling and tracking surveys on how local government units could be financially independent.

In March 2006, the region’s policy-making body through a workshop with the end in view of accelerating and reinforcing all efforts towards regional development decided to make the pursuit of regional autonomy as the over arching theme of the development agenda of the Cordillera in the next four years.

The RDC truly appreciates the initiative of the DAR-CAR in coming up with a manifestation of its full commitment to support the pursuit of cordillera autonomy as enshrined in the Constitution, thus, other line agencies and local government units must also actively participate in the renewed pursuit for self-governance that would spur economic development in the Cordillera.

To concretize the renewed pursuit of regional autonomy, the RDC is mobilizing and harnessing the participation of all its members, including the regional line agencies. By virtue of Executive Order No. 30 in July 2001, the RDC was constituted to act as the primary institution for setting the economic and social development in the region and through which regional development efforts must be coordinated.

Currently, the RDC special committee on autonomy headed by Presidential Assistant for Cordillera Affairs Tomas Killip and Juan Ngalob, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority and interim chairman of the RDC, is finalizing results of the initial pulse survey conducted in the different parts of the region to determine the voter inclination on the issue of autonomy.

The final results of the survey will be the basis of the RDC to formulate appropriate strategies on how to convince the Cordillera people to finally vote for autonomy once a third organic Act will be passed by Congress. Ngalob said the third attempt for cordillera autonomy would be learning from the experiences of the two rejected plebiscites on autonomy and putting things on their proper perspectives.

He said an autonomous status for the Cordillera would be a better setup than the present administrative status because the region would have greater control of its resources and lesser restraint from outside forces or control. -- Dexter A. See