Tanada backs Cordillera autonomy bid in Congress

By Dexter A. See 

BAGUIO CITY – Deputy House Speaker for Luzon and Quezon 4^th district Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tanada III assured Cordillerans of his support to the region’s quest for autonomy, particularly immediate passage of House Bill 5595 which seeks to create an autonomous region in the Cordillera in the 15^thCongress.

            

During his recent visit here, Tanada said he will cast his vote in favor of the passage of HB 5595 once the same will be calendared for plenary debates in the House of Representatives.

            

HB 5595 which mandates establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordillera that will compose the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain province and Baguio City is now pending deliberations in the House committee on local governments to ensure availability of funds, particularly the P75 billion subsidy of the national government to the regional government during the first ten years of its existence.

           

 “Cordillerans deserve to be given what is enshrined in our Constitution. It is not for the national government to solely decide but it will be up to the people to ratify the autonomy law that will be passed by Congress in the coming months,” Tanada said.

           

He added achieving an autonomous status means that most of the functions of the national government will be downloaded to the regional government so that people will have easier access to development projects and will have better availment of basic services that were deprived them in the present set up.

Tanada also said he will participate in the deliberations and debates on the contents of the autonomy bill so that the plight of the Cordillerans will be the ones to be included in its provisions to avoid its eventual rejection when submitted to the people for ratification for the third time.

            

With lesser restraint from outside forces and greater control of the region’s existing resources, he cited development of remote communities will surely be accelerated that will translate to improved living condition of the people since more funds will be infused to build major infrastructures such as roads, bridges, telecommunications facilities among others.

            

“We want the Cordillera to be developed the way the people want it to be,” Tanada said, citing that lawmakers from the region must lobby for the immediate passage of the autonomy bill in the House committees on local government and appropriation so that they could vote on the matter early on prior to the tedious budget deliberations for the 2013 national budget that could eat up most of their time and sacrifice the passage of priority local legislative measures.

            

According to him, the Cordillera could become the successful autonomous region in the country similar to other autonomous regions in other countries like Spain considering that the contents of the pending autonomy bill are the inputs of a cross section of the region who were consulted prior to the preparation of the draft of the bill that was eventually adopted as the bill itself and filed the same in Congress on Dec. 6, 2011.

            

In the Senate, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III also authored Senate Bill (SB) 3115 as the counterpart bill of the pending autonomy bill in Congress to ensure the realization of the constitutional provision creating a Cordillera autonomous region next year.