How not to advocate autonomy

BAGUIO CITY – THE FAQ (frequently asked questions) of the website, www.cordilleravoice.com, defines a constitutionally mandated autonomous government for the Cordillera as “independent from the national government in terms of decision-making.”

Then it points out that an autonomous region would “continue to receive financial subsidy from the national government.”

This sums up the design of a new draft measure featured online by the government-run Cordillera Voice, which seeks to finally convert the 24-year-old Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) into the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

Critics, who have reviewed the FAQ, said the bill does not hide the fact that it wants a big budgetary allocation to engineer economic growth for the upland region.

However, it still reflects the mixed messages that discouraged public support, leading to the demise of the original autonomy crusade after 1998.

The goal

The proposed measure is the culmination of a three-year campaign that regional economic planners began in 2007 to convince Cordillera officials and residents to try a third bid for autonomy.

CAR and its autonomy would fulfill a 1986 peace agreement between the late President Corazon Aquino and slain rebel priest Conrado Balweg, but Cordillerans rejected the first organic act (Republic Act No. 6766) in a 1990 plebiscite, and the second organic act (RA 8438) in another plebiscite in 1998.

What helped convince officials to try again in 2010 was a proposed P50 billion, five-year subsidy to which the autonomous region would be entitled.

Juan Ngalob, Cordillera director of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), has been telling Cordillera governors that investment flow and infrastructure development in the region have been too slow to jumpstart the economy, unless a windfall such as a yearly P10 billion allocation finds its way to the region. He helped coordinate an information campaign in 2009 to draw views on autonomy.

Neda had tracked a “lackluster growth” for the Cordillera, which peaked in 2007 with a 7.1 percent growth rate only to plunge to 1.8 percent in 2008.

The draft autonomy bill, which was overseen by Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan, was also the subject of consultations mounted by provincial governors in 2010.

But even Domogan has to admit in a recent forum that Cordillerans still pay scant attention to these efforts.

That’s where the real trouble lies, he says.

Tired, old arguments

Since 2010, many of the advocates for autonomy have turned back to tired, old arguments to turn public opinion to their cause.

For example, lawyers who helped draft the third autonomy law, warned the public that voting against autonomy ran the risk of dismantling the Cordillera.

Mrs. Aquino created CAR by drawing away Baguio City, Benguet, Abra and Mt. Province from the Ilocos region, and Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao from Cagayan Valley, through Executive Order No. 220.

Lawyers say EO 220 may be withdrawn anytime unless the autonomous Cordillera government is set in place.

Increased government subsidy was another justification used by advocates of the first two organic acts.

But a University of the Philippines Baguio professor says this argument only draws attention to the CAR’s weak fiscal position.

In a November 2010 issue of the UP Baguio faculty newsletter, “Ti Similla,” lawyer Nimreh Calde, a political science instructor, writes: “There is reason to project a future where the region is able to generate resources on its own, rather than just relying on transfers from the central government.”

Citing the region’s use of its annual internal revenue allotments (IRA) or shares from national taxes, Calde says: “Overall, CAR is still generally dependent on IRA with an average of 20 percent for the same period. This data from BLGF (Bureau of Local Government Finance) shows that after almost 20years, the region remains weak in generating its own resources.”

Cordillera Voice’s FAQ credits the failure of the two first autonomy laws to lack of understanding and appreciation of autonomy and inadequate information drives.

Some scholars, who have studied the first autonomy campaigns, say the first two autonomy attempts failed because people either paid little attention to the Cordillera crusade, or had paid too much attention to the sidelines that were engaged in celebrity politics.

For example, the 1990 plebiscite campaign for RA 6766 was swallowed by contending voices, with government pushing an autonomy law that was contested by Balweg and the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, according to the source book, “Advancing Regional Autonomy in the Cordillera,” published by UP Baguio’s Cordillera Studies Center (CSC).

Dr. Steven Rood, the former CSC director who reviewed the first autonomy drive, wrote in 1994 that Cordillerans could not imagine autonomy without reflecting on the concept of ancestral domain. But the third autonomy bill has few references to ancestral lands.

Last year, the Department of the Interior and Local Government commissioned UP Baguio political science professor Arellano Colongon to study how best to communicate the 1986 concept of autonomy to a new generation.

Colongon says current events made Cordillerans reflect on issues outside of the original autonomy crusade. For example, a Mt. Province consultation last year generated questions about “an ‘Ampatuan-type’ of political violence that happened in Maguindanao (in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao).”

The Cordillera Voice FAQ addresses this. It poses the question: “Just like ARMM, will an autonomous region for the Cordillera breed political families that can abuse power and commit crimes with impunity against the people?”

But the FAQ provides this reply: “Cordillerans may not allow crimes to be committed with impunity against the people by political dynasties that may abuse their power because Cordillerans belong to a more peaceful culture.” With a report from Elmer Kristian Dauigoy