BAUKO, Mountain Province – The Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBA) started the tedious reunification process of the fragmented Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) to set an example for other concerned stakeholders to emulate with a united goal of realizing the long overdue dream of the Cordillera people for autonomy.
Engr. Andres Ngao-i, CBA chairman, said the CBA will be forming a technical working group (TWG) which will be composed of non-partisan members to outline the appropriate steps to be undertaken and the guidelines for the reunification of the CPLA actions after heeding the brotherly advice of Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza for unity among the Cordillerans in the renewed quest for autonomy.
The six CPLA factions who were duly represented during the meeting with Secretary Dureza had a 30-minute caucus as a sidelight of the forum organized by the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera that got together pioneer autonomy advocates to help boost the renewed quest for regional autonomy.
Aside from Ngao-i, present during the exploratory negotiations were former CPLA chairman Mailed Molina, CBA Secretary-General and former Sadanga Mayor Gabino Ganggangan, incumbent Abra Vice Governor Ronald Balaw-as, Conrado Dieza, and Andrew Cos-agon.
Ngao-i said the TWG will prepare the pertinent rules and regulations for the conduct of a gathering of all the officers and members of the group with the primary goal of unifying the factions to help in strengthening the clamor for regional autonomy supported by the Duterte administration.
“We admit that we will have a difficult task ahead of us but we will try to exert extra efforts for us to achieve our primary objective of unifying the fragmented organization and send a clear message not only to our local but also our national leaders that we are ready for the autonomy being clamored by our people,” Ngao-i stressed.
The CBA chairman admitted he has two weeks to identify the members of the TWG who will subsequently convene to start their task of trying to heal the wounds that were created by the different interests of the leaders who caused the divisiveness of the organization that was formed after the elite Lumbaya group of the New Peoples Army (NPA) bolted from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) over three decades ago.
According to him, there is a good chance that the factions will be able to get their acts together because all of them have a common aspiration of achieving autonomy for the Cordillera which is being eyed as the ultimate solution in addressing the injustices committed by the national government to the region, especially in depriving the Cordillera a chance to be developed.
Ngao-i appealed to all CPLA officials and members who belong to the different factions to respect the decision of their leaders for them to come together and start a reinvigoratedcampaign for autonomy hopefully to be achieved within the term of President Rodrigo R. Duterte which will be a step towards federalism.
By HENT
