RDC urges unity for autonomy; CPA calls Balweg, gov’t peace pact, Sept. 13 holiday a ‘sham

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The Cordillera Regional Council urged unity among Cordillerans in its thrust to attain autonomy for the region even as Malacanang declared Sept. 13 a special non-working holiday in the Cordillera region to commemorate the 1986 peace talks between the government and the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA).

The militant Cordillera Peoples Alliance called the declaration a “sham” even as Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea issued Proclamation 575 on Monday to commemorate the 1986 " sipat" or peace pact between the government and CPLA.

Medialdea said in the proclamation that it was fitting and proper that the people of Cordillera be given full opportunity to celebrate and participate in the occasion with proper ceremonies.

                The 1986 Mount Data Sipat Agreement was the first peace agreement entered into by the national government during the administration of former President Corazon Aquino.

On Sept. 13, 1986, the CPLA, led by Fr. Conrado Balweg, heeded the call for peace by then President Corazon C. Aquino through the forging of a sipat, or the peace agreement at the Mount Data Hotel in Bauko, Mountain Province.

The “sipat” allowed both sides to begin negotiating peace, leading to the issuance of Executive Order No. 220 on July 15, 1987, which created the Cordillera Administrative Region. 

Meanwhile, an event commemorating the sipat was held Thursday in Manila graced by former President Fidel V. Ramos, Office of the Office of Presidential Affairs on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Sec. Jesus G. Dureza and contending factions of the CPLA.  

The event was coordinated by the OPAPP with the RDC and National Economic Development Authority-Cordillera to push creation of a Cordillera autonomous region.

In attendance were RDC chair and Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan, NEDA-Cordillera Regional Director Milagros Rimando who is RDC vice chairperson, Mt. Province Gov. Bonifacio Lacwasan, Ifugao Gov. Pedro Mayam-o, Abra Vice Gov. Ronald Balao-as, Kalinga Vice Gov.  James Edduba, Baguio councilors Faustino Olowan and Benny Bomogao among others pushing Cordillera autonomy.

Others who attended were regional Philippine Information Agency Helen Tibaldo, Dr Amelita Pangilinan of Dept. of Health, Dept. of Agriculture regional director Cameron Odsey among others.

This, as the militant Cordillera Peoples Alliance hit issuance of President Duterte’s Proclamation No. 575 declaring Sept. 13 special non-working day in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

“It is a complete travesty of the history of the struggle of the Cordillera peoples for regionalization and genuine self determination,” the CPA said in a statement Friday.

The CPA said “the so-called Sipat or peace pact in Mt. Data in 1987 was a romanticized ritual of the sipat indigenous bodong system to symbolize unity or “embrace” of Cory Aquino and Conrado Balweg on Cordillera affairs.

Many of the Cordillera people may not even know and understand the 1986 Mt Data Sipat between Cory Aquino and the CPLA. It did not create the regionalization of the Cordillera.”

According to the CPA, “the regionalization was merely formalized by Cory Aquino through Executive Order 220 in 1987, but the movement for “regionalization” of the Cordillera was already a broad popular work in progress led by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance.”

“When CPLA emerged in 1986, it co-opted this political initiative with government support, then changed its tune of “Cordillera nation” to ride on the popular clamor for regionalization and regional autonomy,” said the CPA statement. “There is no basis to declare Sept. 13 as holiday because the 1986 Mt Data Sipat does not deserve to be commemorated. In fact, it must be condemned.

The so-called Mount Data Sipat has long been exposed as a sham and totally unacceptable, as only binodngan tribes engage in sipat. It emboldened and somehow justified the CPLA in its terrorism against the progressive people’s movement.”

The CPA said, “The 1986 Mount Data Sipat led to the bloody human rights record and terrorism of the CPLA. CPLA terrorism on the people’s movement in the Cordillera is marked by the murder of Cordillera Peoples Alliance officers Ama Daniel Ngayaan and Romy Gardo in 1987; Robert Estimada and Ferdinand Bragas in 1988; Ayangwa Claver, son of Atty. William “Billy” Claver who was the founding Chairperson of the CPA, in 1990 and Christopher Batan in 1993. There were many other victims in interior villages.

“CPLA terrorism targeted progressive Cordillera leaders and activists as well as organizations that criticized narrow indigenist CPLA politics and the opportunism of its leaders.

“In 1987, the Movement to Disband and Disarm the CPLA and other Vigilante Groups in the Cordillera called for the disbanding and disarming of the CPLA. The Movement was formed by various peoples’ organizations, including the CPA.”

              In 1988, the annual Cordillera Day led by the CPA reportedly conducted a peoples tribunal which declared the CPLA guilty of crimes and cited “atrocities of the CPLA” against the people.

“Proclamation 575 repeats the government’s mistake of coddling the terrorist group CPLA and recognizing the existence of the CPLA, which should have long been disbanded,” the CPA said.

RDC officials however said what is important now is for every Cordilleran to stop bickering, unite and work to attain autonomy for the region.  – With a report from Pamela Mariz Geminiano