Creating a Cordillera autonomous region

EDITORIAL

The filing of the third bill in Congress last week to make the Cordillera autonomous would now determine whether the region’s constituents indeed want the governmental set-up if given final approval by Congress.

Even with final approval by Congress, House Bill 4649 called “An Act establishing the Cordillera Autonomous Region”would still be subjected   to a plebiscite among Cordillera constituents whether they approve of it or not.

Two Organic Acts approved by Congress were earlier presented to the people in plebiscites but these were rejected.

This time, proponents of the bill particularly from government, said the measure would redound to benefit of regional constituents as they would now have more control in terms of governance and utilization of natural resources in the region. (See banner story in page 1 for more details.)

Those who are opposing the bill like the militant Cordillera People’s Alliance meanwhile say it would just serve vested interests of proponents like government officials. According to the CPA, they want autonomy for the region but with a different set-up. Meanwhile at this time, according to political analysts, people are not yet ready for autonomy or they just don’t want it.

With this, an extensive information dissemination drive by the government should be done to reach all sectors of society considering funds worth millions of pesos have been allocated by the national government for the purpose.

For sure, making the region autonomous is fraught with pitfalls, even if this is provided for in the Philippine Constitution. With the filing of the bill, those involved in the government’s “information, education, consultation” drive should re-study their approach so constituents would be apprised more on provisions of the bill so they could come up with an educated decision once it is subjected to a plebiscite.

According to government officials themselves, it would be hard to propose another Organic Act to Cordillera constituents if the latter wouldn’t ratify House Bill 4649 which still needs final approval by Congress.

If the government is indeed sincere in making the Cordillera autonomous, political analysts say, then they should reach out to the grassroots, the media among others.  If their sentiments are heard and put in amendments to the bill, chances are they would vote for it if subjected to a plebiscite.Constructive criticism, they say.