Wazzup Pilipinas!
Finally, the advocacy for Cordillera Autonomy goes national. On November 25, 2015, the Regional Development Council of the Cordillera Administrative Region (RDC-CAR) will be holding a National Conference on Cordillera Autonomy at the Novotel Manila, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City. Around 350 officials of national government agencies, Congress and the Senate, the Judiciary, civil society organizations, executives of the business sector and the Cordillera leaders and elders will attend the National Conference.
The collective struggle for an Autonomous Cordillera has indeed come a long way. Since Philippine political independence in 1946, there have been several attempts by the Filipino government to integrate the Cordillera into the mainstream. The Commission on National Integration was established in 1957. In 1964, the Mountain Province Development Authority (patterned after the Tennessee Valley Authority) was established to facilitate development efforts in the region. By the 1970s, the Cordillera became a hotbed for foreign-funded infrastructure programs foremost of which were dams. The Cordillera peoples who continued to experience geographic and social dislocation opposed all these efforts. To suppress the local resistance, militarization in the region intensified.
Finally, in 1987, the Philippine constitution recognized the need for the establishment of autonomous regions in Mindanao and the Cordillera. Today, however, the Cordillera peoples still have to define the substance of that autonomy which would fully put to practice the Cordillera people’s vision of having control over their institutions, their economy and their affairs.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
