BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan underscored that members of both chambers of the 17th Congress will be part of the country’s rich history for having completed the government’s peace initiatives in the south and the north with the successive enactment of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and the eventual approval of the Autonomous Region in the Cordillera.
Speaking before some senators during the Cordillera Leaders Forum on Autonomy with Senators at the Century Park Hotel in Manila last August 10, 2018 and the public hearing called for by the House committee on local government at the Batasan Complex last August 14, 2018, Domogan, who chairs both the Regional Development Council (RDC-CAR) and the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC), appealed to the present batch of lawmakers to also pass House Bill (HB) 5343 or the House version of the proposed autonomy law and the several similar bills pending in the Senate so the government can achieve lasting peace around the country.
“We are elated over the enactment into law of the Bangsamoro Organic Law because the government’s peace initiatives in the south has been partially addressed. We also plead to our lawmakers to immediately act on our clamor for the establishment of the Autonomous Region in the Cordillera because it is also part of the peace initiative in the north that must be completed for the realization of lasting peace around the country,” Domogan stressed.
He explained to the lawmakers that the pending autonomy bills in both chambers have passed through rigid scrutiny of representatives of various sectors to make sure that its provisions will not have constitutional infirmities so that it will be able to hurdle the deliberations that will be done by lawmakers in both Houses of Congress.
Further, he argued that both the BOL and the pending Cordillera autonomy bills have the same constitutional basis. Section 15, Article 10 of the 1987 Constitution mandates the establishment of autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordillera.
While there will be minor amendments introduced to the pending bills, Domogan claimed the pertinent changes that will be introduced by the Cordillera congressmen include provisions of the BOL and the proposed Federal Charter that concerns the welfare and development of the Cordillera, to synchronize the provisions of similarly situated laws and pending proposals.
According to him, Cordillera leaders were elated over the support conveyed by several senators and congressmen from Mindanao on the need to immediately pass the pending autonomy bills. The region will be having its third crack at achieving autonomy with the enabling environment being presented by the administration through its planned shift to federal form of government, considering that both autonomy and federalism are actually not mutually exclusive but instead complimentary.
He admitted that once the autonomy law will be enacted, it will now be the obligation of local officials and concerned stakeholders to make people understand and comprehend the real essence of autonomy in charting the socio-economic development of the Cordillera.
By Dexter A. See
