THE recent State of the Nation Address (Sona) by the President did not mention anything about the bid by the Cordilleras to become an autonomous region. The President mentioned so many things in his Sona and even declared that he favored extending the terms of office of barangay officials but not a whiff or whisper about autonomy in the Cordillera and declaring it as an urgent matter.
What do we expect when we have a President that hails from a part of the country that has seen so much violence, death and chaos and is only now regaining its stability through massive doses of funding, government attention and legislative support?
We are not naïve, we understand why the focus and attention of the President lies in Mindanao and other parts of the southern portion of our country.
If President Rodrigo Duterte will not, or will never declare as urgent the bid of the Cordillera for autonomy then it will be up to us as Cordillerans to see that the provision of the 1987 Philippine Constitution on Cordillera autonomy is complied with.
Baguio City Congressman Mark Go who may have been disappointed that the President never mentioned the Cordillera bid for autonomy recently stated in an interview by this paper that the Cordillera lawmakers is scheduled to sit down and discuss strategies on how to go about getting the approval for the law that would again jumpstart the autonomy bid in the Cordillera.
Here are some unsolicited suggestions on how to fast track the approval of the proposed organic act for autonomy. One, during the meeting with both old and new congressmen in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) it must be clearly established how many of them would want autonomy for the Cordillera and would aggressively lobby and campaign for its approval in both the lower and upper houses of Congress.
This is vital considering that the approval of any legislative measure in Congress requires the nod of the majority.
Second, since numbers are required to approve a legislative measure then logic dictates that an aggressive campaign must be launched immediately to win the hearts and minds, and vote, of a majority of the members of the lower house of Congress.
Particular attention should be given to those whose power and influence can dictate whether a legislative measure should be discussed and decided upon even if it is not deemed urgent. The strategy is that in the first year of their three year term as lawmakers in Congress our Cordillera congressmen should have been able to have the proposed organic act for autonomy in the region approved so that it will now be elevated to the upper house or the Senate for deliberation and determination.
Again our Cordillera congressmen, if they are really bent in having autonomy in the Cordillera region as provided for in our Philippine Constitution, should do their best again and this time winning the hearts and minds of the Senators so that they will commit to the passage of the organic act in their level.
The campaign and lobbying to be done as mentioned above will surely require the stamina, perseverance and commitment of our Cordillera congressmen and they will have to roll up their sleeves and toil in the trenches, so to speak. However, if they succeed and would be able to fast track the approval of the organic act for autonomy and if the subsequent plebiscite is successful in that Cordillerans will ratify it, then they will leave a distinct legacy of accomplishment that no other lawmaker in the history of the Cordillera region has ever achieved.
Finally, while the Cordillera congressmen are doing their best to fast track the approval of the organic act for autonomy in the region, the agencies tasked to conduct information and education campaigns for autonomy should likewise step up their efforts to win the hearts and mind of those who would vote in the plebiscite. The campaign should be done in a much smarter way and its conduct must be adaptive to the conditions and situations prevailing in the region.