BAGUIO CITY – The city government and the Cordillera office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-CAR) recently finalized the week-long activities lined up for the 29th Cordillera Administration Region (CAR) founding anniversary from July 9-15, 2016.
However, the Cordillera Regional Development Council (RDC-CAR) directed the Regional Sectoral Committee on Social Services and Development led by the DSWD-CAR to scout for a guest speaker in case President-elect Rodrigo Duterte will not be able to make it during the culmination program of the week-long celebration on July 15, 2016 at the Baguio Convention Center.
RDC-CAR members prefer that those who will be alternates to President Duterte should be those within the inner circle of his advisers so that the region will be able to send a strong message to him that the Cordillerans want the renewed pursuit for self-governance to be included as one of his priorities aligned with his major platform on federalism since both concerns could be taken side by side.
The week-long CAR founding anniversary celebration will kick off in the city with the send-off ceremony of the Unity Gong Relay on July 9, 2016 in front of the Baguio City Hall. The participants of the gong relay will proceed to Lagawe, Ifugao wherein the turnover of the symbolic gong will be done at the Provincial Capital on July 10, 2016 before proceeding to Tabuk City, Kalinga in the afternoon.
On July 11, 2016, the symbolic gong will travel to Luna, Apayao where it will stay overnight before being brought to Abra for the turnover at the Provincial Capital in Bangued on July 12, 2016.
The symbolic gong will then travel to Bauko, Mountain Province via the Mountain Province-Ilocos Sur road where the turnover will be done at the Mount Data Hotel on July 13, 2016.
The gong will then be brought to the capital town of La Trinidad, Benguet on July 14, 2016 before it will be brought back to the city in the afternoon of the same day.
Janet Armas, DSWD-CAR regional director, said that during the turnover of the unity gong in the provinces, selected parent leaders will be tapped to speak about their insights on the region’s renewed pursuit for autonomy so that autonomy advocates will continue to be empowered to sustain the campaign for the Cordillera to achieve autonomy.
Further, Armas explained that there will be multi-sectoral conferences convened in the provinces during the unity gong turnover involving beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer and parent leaders from the grassroots who will listen to speakers on the region’s renewed quest for self-governance, aside from the conduct of ceremonial tree planting in identified plantation areas that will soon be denominated as unity parks.
The DSWD-CAR official appealed to Cordillerans in the different parts of the region to attend the various activities scheduled by the organizing committee to understand better the essence of regional autonomy.
By Dexter A. See
City NEWS RELEASE
Refer to Dexter See
