CPA spearheads 27th Cordillera Day in Abra

LACUB, Abra -- The Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) is organizing the 27th Cordillera Day celebration here in Barangay Buneg this April.

Cordillera Day 2011 is locally hosted by CPA’s Abra chapter, KASTAN (Kakailian Salakniban Tay Amin a Nagtaudan (KASTAN) and TULBEK (Timpuyog dagiti Umili iti Lacub, Bantayan Ekolohiya ken Kinabaknang, or Lacub People’s Federation for Ecological and Resource Protection), an affiliate of KASTAN.

“As in past Cordillera Day celebrations, Cordillera Day this year will focus on burning issues of the Cordillera peoples, such as corporate mining, militarization, human rights violations and climate change.

This year’s celebration is guided by the theme “Live Out Our Glorious History of Struggle! Fight for Land, Life and Honor!”, explained CPA Chairperson Windel Bolinget.

In light of the government’s attempt for a third organic act for a Cordillera autonomous region, the subject of genuine regional autonomy and self-determination will also be a major concern.

Bolinget added that the 27th Cordillera Day will highlight the historic resistance of the indigenous Tinggians of Abra to the logging of their forests by Cellophil Resources Corporation during the years of the US-Marcos Dictatorship, and the lessons drawn from this struggle.
Thus, on the 27th Cordillera Day celebration, elders and tribal leaders will preside over and seal a multilateral Unity Pact to resist mining plunder, human rights violations, and for continuing defense of the ancestral land.

CPA has successfully sustained regional and decentralized celebrations of Cordillera Day for the past 26 years all over the Cordillera, with delegates reaching as many as 4,000 from communities, other regions, and abroad.

The first Cordillera Day was held in Sadanga, Mountain Province in 1985, evolving from the Macliing Memorials from 1981-1984 to pay tribute to Kalinga pangat Macliing Dulag of Bugnay, Tinglayan, Kalinga, who was slain by the military for his leadership against the World Bank-funded Chico Dams, which was successfully opposed by the Bontoc and Kalinga indigenous peoples.