Autonomy, if forced, ain’t good, Cordillerans told

BAGUIO CITY—An official of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said autonomy for the Cordillera should not be force-fed to its people just because it is mandated by the 1987 Constitution.

“The aspiration of the people in Mindanao is autonomy, that is why we are not discussing its advantages and disadvantages. I am not selling autonomy. It is for you to decide. It is given to you through the Constitution but you do not know what to do with it. If this is force-fed, it is not good,” lawyer Ishak Mastura, ARMM deputy executive secretary, said in a forum on Cordillera autonomy here on Wednesday.

Mastura was invited as a keynote speaker by advocates of Cordillera autonomy. The forum was the culmination of the celebration of Cordillera Month that was organized by the Cordillera Regional Development Council (RDC).

“Move beyond force-feeding, the [call] for Cordillera autonomy has been diluted through time. People have been disillusioned. Autonomy is self-expression,” he said.

The quest to give the Cordillera an autonomous region has been revived after two failed attempts. Two laws creating the Cordillera Autonomous Region were rejected by voters in the six Cordillera provinces (Benguet, Mt. Province, Ifugao, Abra, Kalinga and Apayao) and Baguio City in plebiscites held in 1990 and 1998.

Mastura said autonomy was one of the wishes of former President Corazon Aquino for the Cordillera.

“But she might be the only one who wanted this,” he said.

Juan Ngalob, RDC chair, said the quest for self-government is a struggle because Cordillerans are either uninformed or misinformed about autonomy.

He said government officials should stop invoking the mandate from the 1987 Constitution (Section 15, Article X) in their information campaign so they could force people to endorse autonomy.

“Force-feeding and saying that the autonomy is a constitutional mandate is a shallow way of doing an information campaign,” he said.

He said the proper way of doing it was to explain to people how they would benefit from an autonomous government and solve poverty in the region.

Several groups, especially those in the academe and militants, criticized the push for Cordillera autonomy, saying it was meant to benefit only politicians. Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

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