Cordillera autonomy seen as key to ‘intergenerational justice’

INQUIRER FILES

BAGUIO CITY — The pursuit of Cordillera autonomy will once again be a priority in the congressional agenda of the mountain region’s lawmakers, Baguio Rep. Mauricio Domogan said during this year’s Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) Foundation Day celebrations on Tuesday, asserting that fulfilling this constitutional mandate achieves “intergenerational justice.”

Formed by the late President Corazon Aquino a year after the 1986 People Power Revolution, Baguio and the highland provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga, Abra, Apayao, Benguet, and Mountain Province became the Cordillera Administrative Region — Luzon’s largest cluster of indigenous Filipino communities.

Aquino brought together these so-called “Igorot” provinces by signing Executive Order (EO) No. 220 under a revolutionary government shortly after initiating peace talks with slain rebel priest Conrado Balweg.

The upland region was also promised an autonomous government, alongside Muslim Mindanao, under the 1987 Constitution.

However, House Bill No. 3267 — the latest autonomy measure in Congress — stalled in 2023 after the national government admitted it could not afford the P75 billion “block grant” required for an autonomous Cordillera while sustaining the economy amid numerous global crises.

The House Committee on Appropriations received a white paper outlining the Cabinet’s financial concerns regarding HB 3267.

READ: Baguio, Cordillera bracing for aging population by 2035

Fiscal viability

Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, in a video message on Tuesday, said the government is currently conducting a “fiscal viability study” before the Cordillera autonomy initiative can move forward.

The study, commissioned by the Cordillera office of DEPDev, is a “crucial step in shaping Cordillera autonomy that is both feasible and transformative,” said Balisacan, who co-signed the white paper with the Cabinet’s finance officials.

“In the eyes of a skeptical few,” the push for Cordillera autonomy seemed to have run its course after two organic acts establishing the Autonomous Region of the Cordillera (ARC) were rejected in the 1990 and 1998 referendums, Domogan said.

But subsequent autonomy bills, some of which Domogan co-authored, show that generations of Cordillerans have not given up their “right to judge their future,” said the lawmaker, who returned to politics in this year’s midterm elections after serving as congressman from 2001 to 2010 and as mayor from 1992 to 2001 and 2010 to 2019.

“Our form of autonomy is not a form of secession but of empowerment… It is not a form of rebellion but [a state of governance that promotes] peace and reconciliation… and it is not meant to divide but to strengthen unity,” Domogan said.

“Autonomy is not a foreign concept,” he added, but “our longing and deep desire to finally enhance and protect our cultural identity, to be given more authority to govern our affairs [and] manage and protect our ancestral lands and natural resources… [and to] advance and pursue sustainable development not merely for economic gain but for intergenerational justice.”

According to Domogan, Cordillera communities have existed “long before the ink was invented to inscribe our history and laws.”

EO 220 formed the transitional CAR not only to prepare it for autonomy but also to build and sustain its economy — an effort that has shown progress over nearly four decades, Domogan said.

The region’s Gross Regional Domestic Product in 2024 was 4.8 percent, with its agriculture sector growing for the first time in decades at 1.1 percent. However, this marked a slowdown from the 6.9 percent GRDP recorded in 2023.

Low inflation

Cordillera’s inflation rate in June also continued a downward trend, falling to 2 percent from 2.5 percent in May—indicating stable commodity prices and healthy household consumption, according to Aldrin Federico Bahit Jr., Cordillera chief statistician, during a Monday economic briefing by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

By comparison, national inflation slightly rose to 1.4 percent in June from 1.3 percent in May.

Balisacan said the Cordillera’s rugged terrain remains its biggest development challenge. Achieving 98 percent paved national roads after 30 years is an “essential milestone in regional integration,” but more climate-resilient infrastructure — especially farm-to-market roads — must account for high construction costs in mountainous areas, he said.

He also emphasized the region’s potential to lead the country’s green economy, citing massive river systems capable of generating 6,600 megawatts of hydroelectricity — enough to power much of Luzon.

However, power companies have so far harnessed only 316 megawatts of Cordillera’s renewable energy, Balisacan noted, citing the need for reforms in the fragmented process of power contracting. He said the region should treat climate resilience projects as key economic drivers. /das