BAGUIO CITY—Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza urged leaders of the Cordillera Administrative Region to take a common stand on either a renewed quest for autonomy or a shift to the federal form of government before President Rodrigo R. Duterte makes an official stand on what Cordillerans really want for their region.
Dureza recently met with several Cordillera officials through the Regional Development Council to discuss the possibility of soliciting the President’s support to the region’s renewed pursuit for regional autonomy and the government’s plan for a shift to the federal form of government.
“It seems that there is still a division on the direction that they want to undertake. It will be difficult to convince the President once he will know that the leaders are not united for the cause that they want to pursue in his administration,” he stressed.
Dureza said CAR leaders “must go back to the drawing board” to discuss the best option possible for the Cordillera before bringing the issue to the President.
Duterte “has no problem” if Cordillera officials will decide to pursue regional autonomy again as enshrined in the Constitution, and be part of a federal state in the future as an autonomous region, he said.
“It will be easier to convince the President to certify the autonomy bill as an urgent administration measure once the leaders will be singing the same tune,” Dureza said, reminding the Cordillera leaders present to be mindful of the overall interest of the people instead of political survival.
The RDC-CAR en banc had unanimously approved the new draft of the proposed bill for an Autonomous Region in the Cordillera, which will be transmitted to the region’s congressmen for filing before the House of Representatives.
The President had always been supportive of the pursuit for autonomy in the Cordillera, Dureza said, like the administration’s support for the enactment of the new Bangsamoro law.
Cordillerans could thus have their autonomy bill be deliberated in Congress side by side with the deliberation of the Bangsamoro law, he added.
Dureza’s office “will support whatever options the Cordillera leaders will take” because both options dovetail with the administration’s bid of decentralization of the powers of the government to the different federal states.
Once Cordillera leaders come back to him to relay whatever their decisions will be, they would have a unified stand on the issue, he said.