MORE NEWS, BENGUET

Benguet board OKs teaching of autonomy in high schools
By DEXTER A. SEE

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The long-term advocacy by the Regional Development Council in the Cordillera for autonomy in the region is gaining support from some sectors, which were earlier perceived to be against it.

This developed after the provincial board gave its go-signal to the Department of Education to teach autonomy in high school on condition that political issues are not included in lesson modules.

But the provincial board rejected a proposal for the teaching of autonomy on the elementary level, saying grade school children would have a hard time understanding the topic due to their young age.

Among political issues the board wanted to be excised from any lesson on autonomy is the history of the autonomy movement as well as the Organic Act that mandated the creation of autonomous regions in the Cordillera provinces and in Mindanao.

Earlier, the Cordillera RDC approved a plan for the conduct of a region-wide information, education and communication campaign on autonomy to make people, especially the younger generation, aware of the meaning of self-governance.

Part of the campaign is the teaching of autonomy on both the elementary and secondary levels with the teaching modules to be prepared by DepED.

At the same time, the office of the Commission on Higher Education in the Cordillera prepared the autonomy teaching modules on the tertiary level.

As a result, the subject will be taught in the different government-run and private higher education institutions in the coming school year.

A baseline survey conducted recently by the RDC showed that 66 percent of the people in the Cordillera are not aware of the constitutional provision mandating the establishment of an autonomous region.

Since the autonomy campaign was launched in the early 1990s, Benguet officials were known to have opposed the plan for creation of an autonomous region because of the belief that their culture is superior culture in the region.

However, Juan Ngalob, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority and interim chairman of the Cordillera RDC, said the primary purpose of the revitalized advocacy campaign for regional autonomy is to bind Cordillerans together for greater control of their rich natural resources with lesser restraint from outside forces.