LAMUT, Ifugao (PIA) – The youth leaders and representatives from the different schools of the province held a provincial assembly at the Ifugao State University (IFSU) gymnasium here to gather their sentiments on the issue of Cordillera regional autonomy.
The activity was sponsored by the DEVMAX.Com, Inc., a non-government organization contracted by the National Economic Development Authority to facilitate the conduct of youth assemblies in the region.
Resource speakers discussed the historical basis of autonomy; its legal basis and the three core messages by the Regional Development Council on the Roadmap to Autonomy.
Audience are students from the Saint Joseph School and Ifugao Academy of Kiangan, Don Bosco High School of Lagawe, IFSU and San Francisco High School of Lamut and other students and youth from the other municipalities of the province.
According to Fidel Dincog, DEVMAX executive director, they hope that this activity will arouse interest and help mobilize the youth to meaningfully exercise their right as Cordillerans to freely determine their future within an autonomous region.
The RDC-CAR who acts as the primary institution for setting the direction of economic and social development in CAR believes that an autonomous set-up could hasten the region’s development pace.
It also believes that regional autonomy is the best strategy to accelerate development in the Cordillera as CAR’s economic growth has always been erratic, slow and un-sustained and it needs something to break this cycle of underdevelopment.
The activity was part of the Social Preparation for a Cordillera Autonomous Region towards the realization of a constitutional mandate.