MANILA – Former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III underscored that now is the best timing for the passage of pending bills in the upper chamber seeking the establishment of an Autonomous Region in the Cordillera (RC) because of the high spirits of lawmakers after the enactment of the Bangsamoro organic Law (BOL).
Pimentel and Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito attended the Cordillera Leaders Forum on Autonomy with Senators held at the Century Park Hotel where both lawmakers assured their unwavering support to the region’s quest for self-governance.
Aside from Senate Bill (SB 1678 authored by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, SB 1923 authored by Senator Ejercito and SB 193 authored by Senator Paulo Benigno Bam Aquino IV, Pimentel assured Cordillera leaders, private sector and civil society representatives and regional line agency directors present during the gathering that he will also file another similar autonomy bill to help advance the legislative measures in the upper chamber.
The senator likened the quest for autonomy to a basketball game wherein players are rewarded with free throws and in the case of Mindanao, the first attempt has already been made while the second attempt is about to be made with the conduct of the plebiscite, however, in the case of the Cordillera, there were already two filed attempts to achieve autonomy, thus, the need for Cordillerans to make sure of the third crack on self-governance to fulfill the completion of the government’s peace process in the south and north.
“We are in a situation where were overwhelmed over the passage and eventual enactment of the Bangsamoro Organic Law that is why the deliberation of the proposed Autonomous region in the Cordillera is correctly timed considering that we could use the lessons that we have learned from the BOL to further improve the provisions of the ARC,” Sentor Pimentel stressed. He added that now is the best timing for the deliberation of the ARC because the planned shift to federal form of government being spoused by the present administration will take a longer period of time, thus, the need for Cordillerans to sustain the lobbying with lawmakers in both chambers of Congress for the passage of the pending Autonomy bills.
Pimentel is one of the staunch advocates of federalism which is one of the priority legislative measures being spouses by the Duterte administration following the crafting of the draft Federal Charter prepared by the Consultative commission (ConCom) created by President Rodrigo Duterte to study the needed amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
For his part, Senator Ejercito also conveyed his support to the Cordillera’s renewed quest for autonomy because he personally saw the beauty of the region coupled with its rich culture and history that must be preserved and passed on to generations and it is through self-governance that the same could be achieved.
He claimed that he learned to appreciate the beauty and richness of the Cordillera by visiting the remote places though his own motor bike that is why he learned to value the importance of the contribution of the region to the country’s overall economy.
The son of former president and now Manila mayor Joseph Estrada assured Cordillera leaders and concerned stakeholders that he will work with other authors of the pending autonomy bills to fastrack the deliberation of the measures in the committee level so that the law creating the RC will also be enacted into law similar to what happened to the BOL.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on local government, conveyed his support to the quest for autonomy by the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) through video message where he claimed that his wife and his late mother-in-law are adopted Cordillerans and that he values the importance of cultural preservation and protection as one of the facets of growth and development, especially in areas that re dominated by the indigenous peoples (IPs) like in the Cordillera.
Angara disclosed that he will take up the matter with the committee members to calendar the pending autonomy bills for initial deliberations the soonest while awaiting whatever action that will be taken by the house committee on local government relative to the version of the lower house on the clamor for regional autonomy.
In the previous Congress, the proposed autonomy bill was approved in the House but there was no material time for the Senate to act on the matter which brought back the autonomy back to square one for the present Congress.
Senator Zubiri filed SB 1678 sometime in February while SB 1923 authored by Senator Ejercito was filed two weeks ago and SB 193aauthored by Senator Aquino was filed jus t last week.
Earlier, a number of senators also committed their support to the region’s renewed quest for autonomy in their statements that were issued during their engagements in the different parts of the region.
By HENT