BAUKO, Mountain Province—Granting autonomy to the Cordillera region is “the only justification” the national government could give its residents for the injustice that it had committed in neglecting the region’s development in the past.
Baguio City Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said this during the historic re-engagement forum organized by the Cordillera Regional Development Council on Monday.
Domogan, who chairs both the RDC and the Regional Peace and Order Council, said this injustice was evident in reading the minutes of the Constitutional Convention (ConCon) that drafted the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
It showed that “the framers of the fundamental law of the land recognized the fact that the national government neglected the development of Mindanao and the Cordillera in the past several decades, and the ultimate justification for it to correct its injustice to the two regions is to grant the said geographic areas autonomous status,” the mayor said.
That, Domogan stressed, “should be one of the unifying factors” for Cordillerans to be aggressive in grabbing the opportunity to establish their permanent identity in a legitimate region “that will translate to progress for all.”
Achieving autonomy, he said, will not be for the present generation of Cordillerans but will be for the benefit of the future generations “who will be the one to reap the fruits of the region’s overall development, as a result of devolving most of the functions of the national government to the autonomous regional government in the future.”
Most of the existing polices of the national government “runs counter to the actual situation in the region,” Domogan said.
He cited the priority of the agriculture department is for the aggressive promotion of rice and corn, but in the case of the Cordillera, “the available agricultural crops that are produced are high-value crops and highland vegetables, except for some low-lying areas in Kalinga, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Abra and Apayao.”
He added that construction of mountain roads is far more expensive than building roads in lowland communities, thus the same standards should not be applied in the Cordillera and its mountainous terrain, which needs additional features such as proper drainage systems and slope protection walls.
The snowballing support of various sectors to the RDC-CAR’s renewed quest for regional autonomy “will definitely help chart the real direction of the region in the future,” the mayor said.