TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Cordillera Congress representatives are keeping their fingers crossed on the possibility of starting the plenary debates on House Bill (HB) 3267 that seeks the establishment of the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) after the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. before the joint session of Congress on July 24, 2023.
Rep. Allen Jesse C. Mangaoang said that Cordillera lawmakers are looking forward to the start of plenary debates on the proposed autonomy bill by August prior to the budget deliberations of the House on the administration’s annual budget for next year so that whatever issues and concerns raised will be immediately addressed to avoid further delays in the passage of the said bill.
While waiting for the schedule of the plenary debates in the House, the 3-term lawmaker urged local governments to continue getting the signatures of their respective constituents in support of the immediate passage of the proposed autonomy law which will serve as part of the documents that will be presented in Congress and to the President to convince lawmakers and the Palace to fully support the region’s quest for autonomy.
Earlier, HB 3267 authored by all Cordillera legislators that seeks to establish the CAR was approved by the House committees on local government, ways and means and appropriations and has been transmitted to the House committee on rules for the same to be scheduled for plenary debates.
He emphasized that the region’s third attempt to establish the autonomous region will be historical because it could lead to the realization of the constitutional provision mandating the establishment of autonomous regions in Mindanao and the Cordillera where the status of the region will be converted from the present special administrative region to the long-overdue autonomous region.
According to him, the provisions of the autonomy bill had been a product of a series of consultations conducted by the Regional Development Council (RDC), the region’s policy-making body, to allow the inclusion of the inputs of the concerned sectors to the final version of the proposed law.
He claimed there is a need for the autonomy bill to be passed the earliest possible time before the May 2025 midterm elections to allow the scheduling of the plebiscite for the ratification of the proposed law by the Cordillerans.
Mangaoang underscored that the realization of autonomy for the region will translate to greater opportunities for development because the autonomous regional government will be able to put in place policies, programs and projects that are feasible to the current state of the region unlike in the present set up where all initiatives emanate from the central government without considering the context of the region.
Autonomy advocates have time and again reiterated that the region always gets the least share from the resources of the national government because the primary consideration in the allocation of the national resources are the land area and population of the regions and the Cordillera always lags behind due to its mountainous terrain and lesser population compared to the flat lands of the lowland communities.
