Congress sets public talks on Cordillera autonomy

BAGUIO CITY– The House committee on local government will conduct public consultations in six provinces in the Cordillera and in this city to know the people’s pulse on a bill creating the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

Even as Cordillera Month is being observed this July, Baguio City Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr., committee chairman, said he hoped the region’s aspiration for self-governance would become a reality with the Bangsamoro Law being pushed in Mindanao to give Muslims more leeway as compared to the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Congress, he added, should approve the bill soon, so President Aquino can sign it into law before he steps down from office in 2016.

Aliping said the House panel opted to create an ad hoc committee, which would conduct the hearings in July.
Lawmakers from the region who authored the bill are expecting their constituents to attend the hearings so the committee could hear their opinion on the matter.

The hearings will be held in this city on July 10, Apayao on July 15 and Bangued, Abra on July 22.

On July 23, the ad hoc committee will travel to Bontoc in Mt. Province and to Lagawe in Ifugao on July 24.
This will be followed in Tabuk City, Kalinga on July 30 and La Trinidad, Benguet on July 31.

The committee has 20 members who will take advantage of the two-month congressional recess to hold these meetings.

“Before the year ends, the House and the Senate should have passed their versions of the law so President Aquino will be able to sign it by early next year,” Aliping said.

This, after President Aquino declared July 15 a special non-working holiday in the Cordillera Administrative Region in celebration of the region’s 28th Foundation Day.

The declaration was under Proclamation 1056 signed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.
CAR was created under Executive Order 220 signed by former President Corazon Aquino on July 15, 1987.

Under EO 220, the transitory bodies – Cordillera Executive Board, Cordillera Regional Assembly and Cordillera Bodong Administration were created to prepare the region for autonomy but these bodies ceased their functions after Congress allotted a P1 budget for them owing to inefficiency and corruption.

This year’s Cordillera Month celebration is themed “Conserving the Environment Toward a Greener Cordillera.”

It is hosted by the provincial government of Apayao, with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as head of the Regional Development Council’s Environment and Watershed Management Sectoral Committee.

The activities for the 28th Cordillera Day will start on July 9 in Luna town in Apayao, with a unity gong relay that will be passed around the region’s six provinces and two cities. Now on its fourth year, the unity gong symbolizes the pursuit for a regional autonomy in the Cordilleras.

As part of the unity gong relay, a symbolic tree will be planted in each of the provinces.

A series of activities will also be conducted in Apayao and in other provinces in the region.

Among these are the eco-tour of Apayao, agri-trade fair, technology and job fair, biodiversity and environmental forum and public consultation on the proposed House Bill 4649 or An Act Creating the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

The celebration will culminate on July 15 in Luna with Sen. Koko Pimentel, a supporter of Cordillera autonomy, as guest of honor and speaker.

Activities include forum on declaration of principles on environmental governance July 3 in University of the
Philippines Baguio, and biodiversity exhibit and an autonomy forum in Luna.

Guests shall also be treated to tours that showcase Apayao’s prime ecotourism sites: Marag Valley, Lussok Caves
and Nagan River.

The Unity Gong Relay, the Cordillera Month mainstay activity that highlights unity among Cordillerans, will begin in Apayao, proceed to Kalinga, then to Ifugao, Mountain Province, Benguet, Baguio City, Abra and back to Apayao.

There will also be a job fair, an agri-trade fair to feature the best of the region’s coffee products.

A “stakeholders night” and “Search for Dayagti Cordillera” will be held July 14, followed by culminating program and parade the next day.

The public, government and private sectors, are invited to participate in the festivities.

The regional Cordillera offices of DENR (074 443-9406) and NEDA (074 442-3232) can be contacted for more details on schedule of activities.

The “Secom on watershed and environmental management,” in partnership with Apayao provincial government, is heading this year’s Cordillera Month celebration.

The CAR Regional Development Council sectoral committees and provinces take turns in coordinating and hosting Cordillera Month an annual regional event that started in1988.