TABUK CITY, KALINGA – Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) officials last week barred the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) faction led by Conrado Dieza, Mailed Molina, and Jude Wal from entering the provincial capitol gym where the latter is supposed to hold a Regional Federalism Summit.
In the morning of April 13, members of the CPLA faction crowded in front of the Capitol gym to attend the Regional Federalism Summit but soon dispersed after being denied entry for lack of permit.
After which, Dieza complained to Cabinet Secretary John Castriciones that the provincial government and the PPOC were against Federalism, Vice Governor James Edduba told officials on Monday.
In a manifesto, the PPOC asserts that the provincial government has always been supportive of Federalism. It explained that Dieza, Molina, and Wal are the individuals referred to in PPOC Resolution No. 01, s. 2018 as behind fraudulent recruitments across the province and to whom local government units and entities are not supposed to grant access into government facilities.
Back in April 12, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) held a land title distribution event which was attended by Castriciones and his undersecretaries. The Regional Federalism Summit was supposed to be held the next day as part of the event.
But DAR denied allowing Dieza’s group to include the summit in its event. “There was a letter to me from the higher office to extend the program until April 13 to accommodate CPLA’s summit. But I said we can’t because our program has already been fixed,” Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Edano Canao said.
“I did not want to allow to include them in the program,” Canao added. “We were not aware that they planned to join in our program.”
The April 13 Regional Federalism Summit was an initiative of the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRD-NECC) Cordillera and Task Force EO 220 which is composed of the Cordillera bodies, namely, the Cordillera Bodong Association (CBA), the Cordillera Regional Assembly (CRA), and the CPLA.
The MRRD-NECC Cordillera and TF EO 220 were acting on the memorandum of agreement between the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the MRRD-NECC to conduct information, education, and consultation campaign (IEC) on Federalism.
Provincial Legal Officer Kristian Wandag confirmed MRRD-NECC Cordillera’s letter inviting DILG Regional Director Mario Iringan and his staff to the April 13 summit. “But for the information of the august body, the provincial governor was not informed by the DILG regarding this letter from the MRRD-NECC,” Wandag said.
DILG Provincial Director Mayer Adong said that his office did not recognize the summit as an activity of the CPLA. “Regional Director Mario responded positively to MRRD-NDCC’s letter,” Adong said.
“He instructed us to invite barangay officials to the summit because this is in relation to Federalism. But we informed him of the PPOC resolution condemning this group. What we did was to send a text blast to Punong Barangays inviting them to the summit but we did not say that it was an event of the CPLA,” Adong said.
Adong said that the RD was also requested to invite members of the CRA, CBA, and CPLA to the summit. “[But he said these bodies] were deactivated and so there’s no legal committee to invite them,” Adong explained.
District Attorney Francis Calsiyao also questioned the existence of the CRA and CBA. “Because as far as I’m concerned that is now a defunct agency and they’re using it to invite for people for Federalism.”
“As far as we know, there is no Task Force EO 220,” Vice Governor Edduba said.
The officials said Dieza, Molina, and Wal were ‘self-proclaiming’ as leaders of the CBA, CRA, and CPLA, respectively.
The PPOC, in its manifesto, states that it will form an inter-agency team to conduct an IEC on Federalism in the 152 barangays of Kalinga. Provincial Administrator Henry Gupaal confirmed that Governor Jocel Baac plans to launch the IEC by July in time for President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation address.
The PPOC passed Resolution No. 01, s. 2018 in March after receiving reports that a group of individuals posing as CPLA officials were recruiting residents using promises such as financial support, employment in the Army and the police, and integration to a so-called Cordillera Regional Security Force (CRSF) when the country shifts to a federal form of government.
Governor Jocel Baac later said that the growing presence of the said CPLA group poses a problem to the peace and order situation in Kalinga and was counterproductive to the campaign for Cordillera autonomy and Federalism.
By Iryll Sicnao
