TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Rep. Allen Jesse C. Mangaoang predicted there will be no rough sailing in the immediate passage of the proposed Cordillera autonomy law that is pending before the House of Representatives to be able to achieve the region’s long overdue quest for self-determination.
Mangaoang, who chairs the House Committee on National Cultural Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in the 19th Congress, reported it will be much easier for the Cordillera lawmakers to lobby for the passage of the proposed autonomy law because this has been extensively deliberated upon in the committee level in the previous Congress where issues and concerns raised then were addressed by the Cordillera representatives who authored the bill seeking the establishment of the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR).
However, he claimed that the autonomy bill will still be calendared for deliberation by next year because both chambers of Congress are now focused on the passage of the proposed P5.26 trillion 2023 budget of the national government.
The Cordillera lawmakers are now busy winding up the bicameral conference meetings to synchronize conflicting provisions of the versions of the House and the Senate so that the bill will be submitted for ratification by both chambers and subsequently transmitted to the Office of the President for signing into law.
Earlier, the House Committee on Local Government approved house Bill (HB) 3267 authored by all Cordillera representatives seeking the establishment of the CAR which was then transmitted to the House Committees on ways and means and appropriations for their much-awaited approval before being submitted to plenary debates.
Mangaoang disclosed that what is going right for the proposed autonomy law is the numerous lawmakers from the various legislative districts around the country and Party-list representatives who have already signified their support to the immediate passage of the proposed autonomy law for the special temporary administrative region to be converted to a regular region under an autonomous status.
According to him, it is also important for the concerned sectors in the Cordillera to start submitting the signatures they gathered from the grassroots to support the appeal to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to certify the pending autonomy bill as one of the priority administration measures so that its approval on second and third readings in both chambers could be fast tracked.
Mangaoang earlier rallied various sectors in the different parts of the region to gather as many signatures as they can in support to the region’s quest for autonomy to be presented to the President to help convince him to issue the coveted certification in due time to ensure the timely passage of the law for the Cordillera to be converted into an autonomous region on or before 2025.
Currently, the Cordillera remains a special temporary administrative region empowered to administer the affairs of the government in the region; accelerate the socio-economic development of the region and prepare the region for autonomy.
