Cordillera officials deny begging for autonomy fund

BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera Regional Development Council here said it is not begging for the national government to provide the abolished funds for the renewed pursuit for regional autonomy but it is simply showing its firm commitment to prepare the region for autonomy.

This developed as the RDC-CAR abandoned its earlier plan to lobby with Malacanang to source out the P15 million autonomy fund placed in the budget of the region’s policy-making body this year which was reportedly scrapped prior to the signing into law of the 1.4 trillion national budget.

Juan Ngalob, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority in the Cordillera and acting RDC-CAR chairman, pointed out they thought it wise to propose for a P48 million autonomy budget in next year’s general appropriations law which will include the P15 million lost budget this year to expand what has already been started in the relentless effort to achieve the establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordillera.

After laying the ground work on regional autonomy and development over the past two years, he explained the RDC-Car is now ready to expand the linkages and machineries it developed so that it would be able to realize the desired grassroots level information and education campaign on autonomy.

Under next year’s proposed budget for autonomy to be included in the regular allocation of RDC-CAR, a portion of the funds will be downloaded to the local government units in order to help the widespread information and education campaign among the general public, youth and academe, government instrumentalities and multisectoral groups.

At the same time, Ngalob asserted the capacitation of local governments will also be their primordial concern so that local officials will be taught on how to be financially autonomous without putting the burden on the people through increased taxation but through the proper utilization, development and exploitation of available resources for the benefit of their constituents.

The NEDA-CAR official reiterated there is no need to rush the establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordillera since they have adopted a scientific method to determine voter inclination on the controversial issue before moving on to the next step which is together the consensus of the sectors in preparation for the drafting of a new autonomy law for the approval of Congress.

Despite the scrapped autonomy budget for this year, the RDC-CAR is still on an upbeat mood in pushing for its slowed down activities for the information and education campaign and capacitation of local governments to keep the issue alive until such time that the funds are already in place for a more aggressive campaign.

The scientific approach being undertaken by the lead agencies in the renewed pursuit for regional autonomy is based on the findings of a sampling survey last year which showed 66 percent of Cordillerans are not aware of the existence of the constitutional provision mandating the establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordillera and Muslim Mindanao. -- Dexter A. See