CAR Congress reps file House bill to make Cordillera autonomous

By Michael Umaming, Erlindo Ocay Agwilang and Dexter See

BAGUIO CITY – All Cordillera congressmen filed Bill 4649 at the Lower House Wednesday called “An Act establishing the Cordillera Autonomous Region.”

Once given final approval by Congress, the Act would be subjected to a plebiscite for Cordillera constituents to approve it or not.

The bill was signed by congressional representatives Ronald M. Cosalan, Benguet; Nicasio M. Aliping, Jr; Baguio City; Eleanor Bulut-Begtang, Apayao; Manuel Agyao, Kalinga; Teodoro Baguilat, Jr., Ifugao and Maximo Dalog of Mountain Province .

All congressional representatives earlier agreed to refile the bill and establish lobby group to convince President Aquino to certify the measure as urgent administration bill.

The bill was a revised version of House Bill 5595, which the previous Congress filed December 2011 but which failed to go beyond the Lower House committee on local government.  

A technical working group comprised of the chiefs-of-staff of congressmen, representatives of provincial government, and representatives of the Regional Development Council worked overtime last week to integrate recommendations generated during the consultations since November last year and which culminated during the April 30 autonomy summit.

Rep. Aliping, who had been recently vocal in support of regional autonomy, thanked the RDC in reviving the pursuit for regional autonomy and for it to continue with its effort of educating the people on the issue.  

He also requested that RDC be around during deliberations on the bill by Congress and be ready with resource persons when necessary.

 “I signed for the sake of unity,” said Rep. Cosalan, one of two congressmen who refused to sign HB 5595.  “But I will be honest with you, there are lots of contentious issues there that could be questioned on the basis of constitutionality.  If I go around to consult my constituents I will have to tell them this and will introduce amendments if necessary.”

Among contentious issues Cosalan cited were the provisions on the exploitation and utilization of natural resources.  

He said this is an exclusive power of the national government, and even if Congress will pass the bill and the president will approve it, nobody can prevent anybody from questioning the approved bill before the Supreme Court.

 “Sa Bangsamoro Framework Agreement pa nga lang nararamdaman mo na ang mga ganitong issue na lumalabas – dada-an pa sabutas ng karayom ang Bangsamoro – and probably the Cordillera autonomy bill will go through the same process, Cosalan said.

 What I am telling you is the strong possibility of the bill getting watered down and hopefully if that happens, the Cordillera people will still accept it.

In their explanatory note, the congressmen cited Article X, Section 15 of the 1987 Constitution mandating the “creation of autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras consisting of provinces, cities, municipalities and geographical areas sharing common and distinctive historical heritage, economic and social structures and other relevant characteristics within the framework of the constitution, the national sovereignty, and the territorial integrity of the country.”

“Pursuant to this mandate, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was created under Republic Act 6734 and was strengthened and expanded under R.A. 9054. The Cordillera Autonomous Region, however has yet to be realized,” the explanatory note read.

On July 15, 1987, former President Corazon C. Aquino issued Executive Order No. 220 creating the Cordillera Administrative Region to prepare the region for autonomy.

Two organic acts (to make the Cordillera autonomous) were passed into law in 1990 and 1998 but failed ratification.

In 2006, the RDC decided to renew the pursuit of regional autonomy after it determined that the only way to drastically address underdevelopment and poverty in the region would be through regional autonomy.

HB 4649 proposes that the national government shall provide the Cordillera Autonomous Region an annual assistance of  P10 billion for the first five years and P5 billion for the next five years to be allocated in the following manner: 20% of the annual subsidy for the regional government to support infrastructure, livelihood and revenue-generating projects; 6% for the regional government as trust fund; 23% to be equally divided among the provinces and highly urbanized cities for infrastructure, livelihood and revenue-generating projects; 2% for component cities; 35% divided equally among all the municipalities; and 40% divided equally among all barangays.

“Such therefore is a manifestation that regional autonomy is no longer a lifelong dream but a vigorous desire. With broad sectoral consultations, stronger information campaigns, active participation and clearer understanding on autonomy by the people of the Cordillera, it is imperative and timely that an organic act for the creation of the Cordillera Autonomous Region be enacted,” the congressmen added in their explanatory note.

Ifugao Gov. Dennis Habawel, during the regional autonomy summit  said the formula of the national government in allocation of its scarce resources, particularly based on land area and population, had created inequalities for the Cordillera which is a mountain region that deprived it from getting a larger share.

For example, he cited the priority of the national government in the agriculture sector is rice and corn but the Cordillera is known to be the producer of high value crops thereby resulting to meager allocations for the enhancement of high value crops that affect the overall picture of the region’s agriculture sector.

Benguet Gov. Nestor B. Fongwan said Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao is the source of around 80 percent of the country’s supply of semi-temperate vegetables but the concerned government agencies do not provide substantial allocation for enhancement of local vegetable industry that provides livelihood to over 300,000 individuals in said provinces. 

“In an autonomous set up, we will be able to significantly work for the enhancement of the industry because it is one of the region’s economic drivers unlike in the current set up that we just bow down to the whims and caprices off those in power in the agriculture department,” Fongwan said.

He added Cordillera is always left behind in allocation of government resources because it has smaller land area which is around 1.8 million hectares, 85 percent of which is classified as forest reservation, and a total population of only 1.6 million inhabitants with close to 1 million voters compared to the wide tracks of lands and rapidly increasing population in the lowlands.

In terms of the 40 percent share of the host local governments from the operation of hydroelectric and large-scale mining companies, Fongwan cited difficulty in lobbying for immediate release of their share from the national government considering companies directly remit such taxes to the national coffers and it will be up to the concerned agencies to decide when to release the due share of the host communities.

 According to him, in an autonomous set up, the law mandates all companies exploring, utilizing and developing the resources of a certain locality to directly remit the share of the concerned local government to the coffers of the barangay, municipal, city and provincial government to allow the concerned local government the freedom to allocate the funds for their priority projects.

Baguio City Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said autonomy will allow the region to be the one to issue exploration permits, water permits, ancestral domain titles among other permits for companies unlike in the present set up where the national government willfully issues water permits, exploration permits among others that result to the depletion of the region’s water resources and creates conflicts among indigenous peoples since it is done without the consent of host communities.

 “We are familiar with the prevailing situations in our respective areas of jurisdiction that is why the Regional Autonomous Government should be empowered to grant such permits instead of solely relying on concerned government agencies that willfully issue permits amidst the objections of affected sectors,” Domogan said.

Domogan said limitation imposed by the national government for non-titling of lands with an elevation of above 18 degrees is an injustice to the Cordillera people considering almost 85 percent of the lands in the region are above 18 percent elevation and are classified as forest reservations thereby depriving the people ownership of lands for conversion into sources of livelihood.

Mountain Province Gov. Leonard Mayaen said being the watershed cradle of Northern Luzon, the national government should give priority for reforestation of the region’s mountains and provide substantial sources of livelihood to people in watershed areas to prevent them from ravaging the forests to ensure abundant water supply for power generation, irrigation of agricultural lands in the lowlands, domestic among other uses but the same has never happened causing massive encroachments to the forests posing a serious threat to the state of water supply for the country’s overall economic picture.