Apayao youth leaders say yes to autonomy

LUNA, APAYAO Sangguniang Kabataan officials from all over the province overcame inclement weather to discuss and commit their support to Cordillera autonomy.

Wenz Nathaly Cagat, Apayao SK provincial federation president co-organized the event in partnership with the Provincial Local Government of Apayao and the Regional Development Council of the Cordillera Administrative Region. Autonomy advocates Philip Uba of Apayao and Laurence Bayongan of Kalinga discussed the history and current pursuit for regional autonomy in the Cordillera.

Uba discussed the region’s struggle for identity and self-determination with a brief history of the different administrative divisions of the Cordillera which has gone through several iterations before the current administrative setup. Uba described the old 19th-century Spanish comandancias of Amburayan, Kiangan, Bontoc, Lepanto, Bontoc, Kalinga, and Apayao and others which later were grouped as Mountain Province with Amburayan being dissolved into La Union and Ilocos Sur.

He added Mountain Province consisted of the sub-provinces of Bontoc, Ifugao, Benguet, Baguio City, Apayao, and Kalinga established an identity for the Cordilleran people. Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao, and Mountain Province were then created as their own independent provinces in 1966. These provinces would become one again as the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) created under Executive Order 220 in 1987 as a temporary region in preparation for regional autonomy.

Uba also recognized the significant role of Abra and one of its figures, the late Father

Conrado Balweg, in helping create the CAR.

Bayongan, a former member of the Cordillera Executive Board emphasized the core principles of the current pursuit of Cordillera autonomy which include the ability to craft responsive policies in the region and achieve progress for all Cordillerans by fasttracking regional development.

Bayongan also clarified that the Cordillera leaders have agreed to pursue autonomy first towards federalism to ensure the unity of all Cordillera provinces.

Participants recognized the need to fasttrack development and appreciated the opportunity that self-determination through regional autonomy can provide.

A mock plebiscite was conducted among the SK officials and 98% of the participants voted in favor of Cordillera autonomy while 2% were still undecided.

It can be recalled that Apayao was the lone province to vote in favor of Cordillera autonomy in the 1998 plebiscite.

RDC, through the National Economic and Development Authority – Cordillera continues to disseminate information about and gather support for the renewed pursuit for regional autonomy with activities scheduled both in the national and local levels. The youth continue to be a priority with SK forums already conducted in Benguet, Abra, and Baguio City. Another forum is scheduled for the Ifugao SK officials later this year.