Cordi execs draft EO to raise more projects
BAGUIO CITY—Lawmakers and officials of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) have drafted an executive order (EO) which would grant the upland provinces a package of projects while the region’s third push for autonomy remains in limbo.
They expect President Aquino to sign the new EO once they transmit it before New Year because they were told it was the President’s idea.
The proposed EO would grant the Cordillera special infrastructure and social development projects that would improve the upland economy, said Mila Rimando, Cordillera regional director of the National Economic and Development Authority during a recent news conference.
Aquino has not expressed support for the latest autonomy initiative, House Bill No. 4649, which converts CAR into an autonomous region.
But government sources, including Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. and Benguet Rep. Ronald Cosalan, said Aquino was amenable to an EO that recognizes the uplands as a “special region,” based on information supplied by a provincial governor who claimed to have spoken with the President.
Baguilat said the special region EO should not stop Cordillera lawmakers from pursuing HB 4649, which he co-sponsored with Cosalan and five other lawmakers in the region.
When asked, Rimando said they have not contacted Malacañang officials to verify the governor’s claims that the draft EO was Aquino’s suggestion.
Rimando did not also reveal the projects lined up by the proposed directive.
Like the new Bangsamoro region that would replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Article X of the 1987 Constitution mandates the creation of an autonomous government for the Cordillera provinces.
But Cordillera voters failed to ratify the first law creating an autonomous government, during a plebiscite in 1990. The region’s voters, in a 1998 plebiscite, also rejected a second law passed by Congress.
Should Aquino issue the special region EO in 2015, Rimando said it would be called “Accelerating the economic and social development of the Cordillera Administrative Region and accelerating its special preparations towards autonomy.”
The Cordillera’s economic performance had not been sterling, although its economic growth improved from a 1-percent gross regional domestic product in 2012 to 6 percent in 2013, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board.
But the draft of the special region EO does not address national policies which restrain Cordillera growth, Rimando said.
The Cordillera Regional Development Plan outlines national policies not appropriate for mountain terrain, but Rimando, when asked at the news conference, said it was not included in the draft document.
The plan said: “National infrastructure policies and standards are inclined to favor lowland regions over mountainous upland areas.”
It said mountain road maintenance “is much more expensive than in lowland areas because of additional slope protection facilities, bioengineering stabilizers, more sophisticated drainage structures and factors that are aggravated by the region’s vulnerability to rain-induced landslides.”
The special region EO does incorporate a tax provision from another presidential order, which the President’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, issued on June 15, 1987 to form Baguio City and the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, Mt. Province, Kalinga, Apayao, and Abra, into the administrative region.
Section 22 of EO 220 grants the Cordillera “an equitable share of the taxes and other government revenues generated in the CAR territorial coverage,” particularly 50 percent of taxes and other government revenues collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and other agencies.
EO 220 has become law because it was issued when the late President Aquino operated under a revolutionary government.
But Rimando said this tax provision had never been enforced. With a report from Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer Northern Luzon
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