BAGUIO
CITY – President Aquino has declared July 16 a special non-working holiday in
the Cordillera even as its officials are pushing to make the region attain an autonomous
setup from its present administrative.
Executive
Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., with the President’s authority, issued
Proclamation 391 declaring the special non-working holiday in lieu of the July
15 Foundation Day of CAR, which falls today.
CAR
was established by virtue of Executive Order 220 issued by Aquino’s late
mother, former President Corazon Aquino, on July 15, 1987.
Officials
of the administrative region which covers Mt. Province, Benguet, Kalinga,
Apayao, Ifugao and Abra in moves to make the region autonomous, have completed
a “unity relay” yesterday wherein a “unity gong” was passed from one province
to another.
The
gong, from Apayao delegates, gave the gong to regional officials at Lamtang,
Irisan in Baguio, considered the last leg of the process.
Cordillera
officials said they were in support of the Senate and Lower House bills which
proposed an autonomous region for the Cordillera.
The thrust for autonomy, they said, was based
on the reality as documented by anthropologists
and historians Igorots have been in the Cordillera mountains with their own
cultural laws and political divisions 3,000 years ago and with this, their
culture must be preserved and they must attain self-governance.
In retrospect, reports have it that the Spaniards were able
to reach the Cordillera via Ilocos and saw the distinct culture of the Igorots.
In the late 1590s, the Spaniards established the encomienda (district) of El Abra de Vigan (Opening of Vigan) under the comandancia politico-militar (province) of Ilocos.
They established missions in Bangued and started spreading
Catholicism in the area.
In 1620, drawn by the fabled golds of the Igorots, the
Spaniards explored Benguet reaching as far as La Trinidad. In 1663, the
Spaniards marched to Kayan in Mountain Province.
But the colonizers did not stay long in the region.
The Spaniards' attempt to conquer the Igorots intensified
again in the 19th century. They established the comandancia of Kiangan in Ifugao in 1841 and
of Abra in 1846 separating it from Ilocos Sur (which became a separate province
from Ilocos Norte in 1818).
New districts were also created in 1846, Amburayan (covering
parts of Ilocos Sur and Apayao), Lepanto (encompassing parts of Mountain
Province) and Benguet (which was placed under La Union comandancia and contains La Trinidad Valley and
adjacent areas).
In 1847, the Tiagan comandancia was created which include the
boundaries of present day Abra, Ilocos Sur, and Mountain Province.
The district of Lepanto which covered the area from Mainit to
Banaue became a province in 1852. Benguet, made up of a stretch from Buguias to
Itogon, followed suit in 1854 .
In 1859, the comandancias of Magaogao in Kalinga and Bontoc in
Mountain Province were created. The Saltancommandancy (1859) covered the area
from Pinukpuk to Tinglayan.
In 1889, the Spaniards changed Saltan to Itawes comandancia which ruled Conner, Tabuk and
Paracelis. They also re-established the comandancia of Kiangan which took Banaue from the
Bontoc comandancia and covers the whole Ifugao area.
Bontoc, in return, got Lubuagan, Tanudan and Tinglayan.
In 1891, before the century ends and so is their domination
in the Philippines, the Spaniards created the provinces of Kayapa from the
boundaries of Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya and by elevating Amburayan from
being a district.
Just like their earlier expeditions in the Cordillera, the
later efforts of the Spaniards to dominate the highlanders were short-lived and
made a very little impact. For all those years the colonizers subjugated most
of the country, the Igorots lived free.
Within a short span of time, the Americans were able to
penetrate the whole of Cordillera. And in more than four decades of ruling the
country, they open the area for mining explorations and the Igorot culture to
world scrutiny.
The Americans started some political re-organization as soon
as they took over. In June 1901, they created Amburayan Province which occupies
vast part of the Mountain Province today. Then in 1902, they established the
Lepanto-Bontoc Province.
In 1905, Abra was annexed to the bigger Ilocos Sur.
On August 18, 1908, through Act No. 1876, the sub-province of
Apayao (which was then part of Cagayan), and the provinces of Benguet,
Amburayan, Lepanto-Bontoc, Kiangan (Ifugao) and Itawes (Kalinga) were
solidified under the newly created Mountain Province.
One act during the American colonization that made the
biggest impact in the Cordillera was the declaration of Baguio as a chartered
city on September 1, 1909. The city was envisioned to be a health resort to
American soldiers and civilian employees and resting place from the sweltering
heat of the lowland. But the creation of
good roads leading to the city also made way for the mining
boom in the region.
In March 1917, Act No. 2683 was promulgated re-creating the
province of Abra and separating it from Ilocos Sur.
The last re-organization conducted by the Americans took
place in 1920. The western border of the Mountain Province was pushed eastward.
In effect, the entire subprovince of Amburayan and Lepanto were dissolved.
The Amburayan towns and villages were transferred to the
provinces of Ilocos Sur and La Union while Lepanto areas were integrated to the
sub-provinces of Benguet and Bontoc and to Ilocos Sur.
The boundary re-creation also led to the cessation of some
Benguet towns to Ilocos Sur and La Union.
The political division in Cordillera as left by the Americans
remained the same for 45 years.
Change took place only when a Republic Act 4695 was passed in
June 18, 1966 dividing the old Mountain Province into four - Mountain Province,
Benguet, Ifugao, and the merged Kalinga-Apayao.
In 1972, under President Marcos' Integrated
Reorganization Plan, Kalinga-Apayao and Ifugao is placed in Cagayan Valley
Region (Region 2) with Nueva Vizcaya, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino and Batanes
while Mountain Province, Benguet and Abra were fused with Ilocos Norte, Ilocos
Sur, Pangasinan and La Union to form the Ilocos Region (Region 1). Several
times, many Cordillerans requested the merging of the old Mountain Province
into one region but were denied.
The clamor to have a separate region for the Cordillera was
granted in 1987 when Pres. Cory Aquino signed EO No. 220. The order joined the
provinces of Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao, Mountain Province and the
chartered city of Baguio into the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). EO
No. 220 was supposed to facilitate the creation of an autonomous region in the
Cordillera, however, subsequent bills passed by Philippine Congress were
rejected in plebiscites. In effect, Cordillera remains an administrative region
as to this day. (Click here to
read more about the creation of CAR.)
On February 14, 1995, through RA No. 7878,
Apayao and Kalinga were made separate provinces increasing the number of CAR
composite provinces to six.
On June 18, 1966,
Republic Act No. 4695[2] was enacted to split
Mountain Province into four separate and independent provinces of Mountain Province, Benguet, Ifugao and Kalinga-Apayao.
Prior to the formal
creation of Cordillera Administrative Region, as a consequence of the
constitutional mandate under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the former four
provinces was loosely under Cagayan Valley Region while the fifth
province Abra was grouped under Ilocos
Region.
On July 15, 1987,
President Corazon C. Aquino issued Executive Order
No. 220 which created the Cordillera Administrative Region, that included Mountain Province, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao and annexed the province
of Abra as part of the
Cordillera Administrative Region, giving the region formal autonomy as part of
her political compromise to the Cordillera People's Liberation Army, a rebel
group operating in the mountain region.
On February 14, 1995,
Kalinga-Apayao, one of the five provinces of the region was split into two
separate and independent provinces of Apayao and Kalinga with the enactment of
Republic Act No. 7878[3].
Several attempts at
legalizing autonomy in the Cordillera region have failed in two separate
plebiscites.
An affirmative vote
for the law on regional autonomy is a precondition by the 1987 Philippine
Constitution to give the region autonomy in self-governance much like theAutonomous Region of Muslim
Mindanao in southern
Philippines.
The first law Republic
Act No. 6766, took effect on October 23, 1989 but failed to muster a majority
vote in the plebiscite on January 30, 1990[4]. The second law,
Republic Act No. 8438 passed by Congress of the Philippines on December 22, 1997,
also failed to pass the approval of the Cordillera peoples in a region-wide
referendum on March 7, 1998.
At present, a third
organic act of the Cordillera is in the offing supported by the Cordillera
Regional Development Council.
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