RDC to Cordillerans: Help attain autonomy

By Carlito C. Dar

BAGUIO CITY -- The Cordillera Regional Development Council is pushing “unity” among constituents to attain regional autonomy.       

According to RDC co-chair Dr. Virgilio Bautista, the Cordillera Administrative Region since its establishment 25 years ago, has  gained a lot in its struggle for socio-economic development  but much  is still  needed to be done to ensure better quality life for every Cordilleran.

“While we must be proud of our significant gains in the past 25 years, we,  in the RDC believe that we can accomplish much more under an autonomous set-up that will afford us the right to manage our natural resources and safeguard our assets, expected to be responsible and nurturing stewards as our ancestors taught us”, Bautista said.

In terms of Indigenous People (IP) rights, Bautista stressed that the passage of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) is one of the region’s important gains.  IP communities in the region have embarked on the formulation of their Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plans.  But he said   many provisions of the IPRA are needed to be fully implemented.

As for infrastructure, Bautista reported that as of February 2012, 64.42 percent of the region’s roads are  paved, though looking at the regional  situation, only Baguio City’s roads are 100 percent paved  with Apayao  having the least paved roads at 32.42 percent. CAR still registered the least paved roads at 54 percent  nationwide  in 2011.

In terms of poverty, Bautista reported that as the region posted only modest performances in growing the economy, poverty remains to be a problem.

According to him, though the region successfully scaled down poverty incidence  from 32 percent in 1991 to 17.1 percent in 2009, the gap across provinces remains wide and only Benguet, including the highly urbanized city of Baguio,is the top performer with four percent poverty incidence rate. The  rest remain among the top 20 poor provinces  nationwide.

On environment, Bautista said as CAR is said to be the Watershed cradle of North Philippines supplying water for domestic, irrigation, power generation and industrial needs within and outside the region, of the region’s   total land area only 15 percent is classified as alienable and disposable land while the rest are classified as forest land, at such the limited A & D land has resulted to negative impacts on forestlands with expanding needs for settlement and livelihood.

With this unique situation of the region, the RDC, inspired by the region’s development vision, renewed the pursuit on autonomy and with the proposed regional autonomy as the overarching theme for Cordillera Development.

After 25 years, with the drafting of the third organic act, which is already filed in Congress as House Bill 5595 and Senate Bill 3115, the RDC reiterated its call for autonomy.

“We eagerly look forward to that day when we are finally in control of our future and our development as a people, living in a multi-cultured Cordillera society with a shared common vision to improve the quality of every Cordillera. With regional autonomy, we are confident of growing our economy at a faster and more sustained rate that will ensure better quality of life. We in RDC, hope that you will be one with us in this long and difficult journey towards moving forward the state of development of our beloved Cordillera”, Bautista said.