|
20
Years of Cordillera Day
A Historic Testament to the Resolute
Cordillera Peoples’ Struggle
The
history of Cordillera Day is the history of a vibrant peoples’ struggle for a
just society. It is an annual observance of achievements, where weaknesses are
recognized and lessons are learned. It
is also an annual event for renewing the commitment and ideals pursued by
Cordillera’s heroes and martyrs.
BY
WINDEL BOLINGET
Contributed to Bulatlat.com
Part
II: Historical Highlights
April
24, 1985 was the first Cordillera Day. It
was celebrated in the village of Belwang, Sadanga, Mountain Province and was
well participated in by peoples organizations of the different sectors. The issues of Chico dams, Cellophil, mining, militarization
and human rights violations were highlighted.
In
1986, the fall of the Marcos dictatorship and upsurge in the mass movement made
it appropriate to hold Cordillera Day in the town center and not the usual
remote interior villages. The Cordillera Day celebration was thus held in Bontoc
to celebrate the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship and to reiterate the basic
Cordillera peoples’ demands to the new Aquino regime. It was the first to be
held in a town center. Succeeding gatherings until 2001 would be held outside
the Chico River Valley.
Turbulent
period
The
1987 Cordillera Day was held in Lagawe, capital town of Ifugao province. This
marked the first participation of representatives from other indigenous
peoples’ organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.
In this celebration, former Senators Lorenzo Tañada and Jose Diokno were
given plaques of recognition for their strong support to the Cordillera
peoples’ struggle. Ama Lumbaya, a
respected Kalinga elder and peace pact holder who took up arms to concretize his
defense of ancestral land and opposition to the Chico dams, was also recognized
during the event.
That
year, the celebration was held amidst much hope by the people for reforms with
the Aquino government. The theme
carried high hopes of achieving regional autonomy.
During the first months of Aquino’s assumption to power, the Cordillera
People’s Alliance (CPA) representing the Cordillera mass movement was honored
with an invitation and appearance in Malacañang for its role in the
anti-dictatorship struggle and its leadership in the particular Cordillera
peoples movement for self-determination.
But
the people’s hopes were immediately shattered by the anti-people policies of
the US-Aquino regime, particularly its total war policy and its coddling of the
paramilitary Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA).
In
the end, 1987 turned out to be a turbulent year for the militant Cordillera mass
movement.
The
CPLA, led by Conrado Balweg, split from the New People’s Army (NPA) and held a
peace pact with President Aquino in Mt. Data in the same year.
The Aquino regime would totally embrace CPLA to the exclusion and
marginalization of the CPA and the militant mass movement that had historically
initiated and led the Cordillera movement for defense of ancestral land and for
self-determination.
Corazon
Aquino’s political shortsightedness and blind fear of the militant movement
would lead to future blunders on the handling of the Cordillera struggle for
self-determination. It set up the
failed Cordillera Bodong Administration – Cordillera Regional Assembly and
came out with the first Organic Act for Regional Autonomy which was strongly
rejected by the people.
CPA
exposed and criticized the CPLA for its bankrupt ideas on Cordillera
self-determination like “setting up a Cordillera nation” with a “bodong
government,” creating animosity between Cordillerans and non-Cordillerans with
pronouncements such as “Cordillera for Cordillerans only,” terrorism of the
paramilitary CPLA against the unarmed mass movement, and its opportunist deals
with mining companies/vested interests, and positioning in government even
though it is an armed group.
In
turn, CPA leaders were harassed and persecuted.
The worst cases were the murders by CPLA operatives of Daniel Ngayaan,
CPA vice chairperson, and Romy Gardo, CPA Abra coordinator, in October and
December 1987, respectively. The
spate of human rights violations was a testament to the folly of the Aquino
regime. Its initiatives on Cordillera “self-determination,” closely
undertaken with the CPLA and other opportunist traditional politicians, were
dismal failures. The CPLA would be condemned for its terrorism and would break
apart. It was transformed by the
military and the government as well as traditional politicians for their
self-serving interests.
Cordillera
Day 1988 was held in Baguio City, as a Peoples’ Tribunal to try Conrado Balweg
and the CPLA for their crimes. Witnesses
and families of CPLA victims presented testimonies on CPLA atrocities before a
panel composed of indigenous elders, lawyers, church people, representatives of
peoples’ organizations, media, and international solidarity partners/
advocates of indigenous peoples rights and human rights.
The CPLA was found guilty of at least 18 crimes.
The
event was a historic milestone for two reasons.
First, the people’s trial was held at the height of the Aquino
regime’s total war policy and CPLA terrorism.
Second, the people, through their testimonies, courageously presented the
truth and details of the CPLA crimes. The
testimonies brought the CPLA crimes to broader public attention. The celebration
drew its success from the families of the victims and witnesses who braved the
storm of terrorism and persecution.
In
stark contrast, the government has yet to convict or declare the CPLA
responsible in any of these crimes.
Rejection
of false autonomy
The
next Cordillera Day celebration was in Tadian, Mountain Province.
It took place amid the fuss over the drafting of an Organic Act for an
Autonomous Region of the Cordillera, which in 1990 was rejected in a referendum.
The Act failed to truly represent the land/resources and political interests of
the Cordillera people and there was no genuine consultation with the people. Its
close association with the CPLA was a major factor for the strong rejection.
In
1990, Cordillera Day was celebrated in Conner, Apayao, with the theme, “Live
out True Autonomy.” The
celebration stressed that the true essence of autonomy is that which is
practiced at the community level and not one that is imposed.
The celebration also held the dornat or renewal of the peace pact
between two communities – an Isneg tribe and a Tingguian tribe.
In 1991, Cordillera Day was held for the second time in Tadian,
Mountain Province. It highlighted
sustainable development of resources within ancestral lands as an integral
component of advancing autonomy.
The
following year saw the Cordillera Day celebration in Itogon, Benguet, site of
the open-pit mining operations. It
projected the militant struggle of the communities against large-scale mining
and the plunder of their resources and livelihood since the early 1900s when
American mining started in the area.
In
1993, Cordillera Day was celebrated in Sagada, Mountain Province where soldiers
and paramilitary elements stationed at a ridge overlooking the venue,
“guarded” the activity.
Cordillera
Day 1994 was held in Mankayan, Benguet. Like Itogon, Mankayan communities since
the American colonial period have been affected by large and destructive mining
operations of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company.
Issues of mineworkers on retrenchment and their longstanding demands were
put forward. It was also the first year of the United Nations’ International
Decade for the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which ends this 2004. In line with
this, the CPA’s decade-long campaign for the “Defense of Land, Life and
Resources” was also launched.
It
was during this year that the CPLA and other groups started their own bogus
version of “Cordillera National Day.” Such
self-serving bogus celebrations would be attempted in the coming years depending
on the objectives of CPLA, the Armed Forces of the Philippines or traditional
politicians who persistently tried to confuse the people.
Cordillera
Day 1995 was the only decentralized celebration, held in the provinces of the
Cordillera and in Baguio City.
In
1996, Cordillera Day was celebrated in Baguio City for the second time. A
breakthrough in the history of Cordillera Day, the celebration was characterized
by week-long coordinated activities and conferences, and peaked in a
march–rally. A covenant was
signed denouncing the policies of the Ramos government like the Expanded Value
Added Tax, the MTPDP (Medium Term Philippine Development Plan), Mining Act of
1995, San Roque Dam and policies on agriculture, tourism, ancestral lands and
deceptive regional autonomy.
Still
the same issues
The
Cordillera Day celebration in 1997 focused on the issues of megadams, which were
the starting issues of the early Macliing Memorials and Cordillera Day. It was
held in Dalupirip, Itogon, Benguet, one of the remaining bastions of Ibaloi
culture threatened by the San Roque Dam construction.
Anti-Chico dam veterans from Bontok and Kalinga shared their experience
with the younger generation, narrating how they employed different legal means,
mass mobilizations, and even armed resistance to defend their land.
The elders openly expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the NPA
for its support in their life-and-death struggle.
They urged the people of Dalupirip to learn from their experience and
heed the lessons of their struggle.
Unlike
the past celebrations which were held only on April 24, the 1997 Cordillera Day
started the tradition of holding the celebration for two days.
Various workshops on people’s issues were held on the first day.
The main celebration was on the second day.
The
1998 Cordillera Day was the first centralized celebration to be held in the
province of Abra, outside of the 1995 decentralized celebrations.
It was a slap on the face of the CPLA since it was in this area that the
CPLA was formed and where the Balweg faction declared their split from the NPA
in 1986.
Balweg
and his CPLA desperately attempted to prevent the preparations and even harassed
the participants who were on their way to the venue. But all their efforts were futile as the villages remained
firm in their determination to host the Cordillera Day. Delegates from Mountain Province trekked the mountains for a
day just to reach the venue.
Cordillera
Day 1998 was held in the wake of the resounding rejection of a bogus autonomy
act in a second plebiscite. It reiterated the basic position of the Cordillera
peoples’ movement on the issue – genuine respect of ancestral land rights,
indigenous socio-political institutions, and democratic processes is the essence
of Genuine Regional Autonomy.
The
celebration for Cordillera Day in 1999 was hosted by another community with many
historical lessons of struggles to share. This time it was in Mainit, Bontoc,
Mountain Province. Before the
actual Cordillera Day celebration, Mainit and the nearby villages united in a
petition to drive away the 54th Infantry Battalion from the area.
Thus, there were no military harassments during the actual gathering.
The host community shared their historic record in frustrating various
tactics of mining companies to enter their ancestral territory as well as
opposing through concerted militant actions a geothermal energy project. Thus,
the challenge espoused by the 1999 Cordillera Day was to draw lessons from
militant local struggles.
Cordillera
Day 2000 was the second celebration to be held in Abra, this time in the
municipality of Sallapadan.. With
the enactment of Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) and various anti-people
projects in the region, the call during the celebration was “Resist all
attempts to disintegrate the indigenous systems and processes of the Cordillera
peoples.” The unity pact forged
in 1998 in Tubo was renewed in a closing ritual led by the host community and
elders. The celebration supported
the community protest against the FTAA (Financial and Technical Assistance
Agreement) application of a U.S. mining company, Newmont.
The peasant situation, IPRA (Indigenous Peoples Rights Act) and various
issues on forestry were tackled.
In
2001, Cordillera Day was brought again to Mankayan, Benguet - a community
ravaged by mining. The usual scarcity of water due to Lepanto Mining operations
was minimized by the discipline of delegates in view of rationed water. This was also assuaged by a sudden welcome rain at the time
of Cordillera Day.
The
delegates saw first-hand the tailings dam of Lepanto, ground subsidence and
massive landslide as well as the collapsed mine tailings dams.
The celebration highlighted the burning issue of mining and expressed
support to the local struggle against Lepanto operation and expansion.
It
was also during this year that the peoples’ movement participated in the
electoral struggle through the party list elections.
The celebration pointed out the role of the mass movement in Philippine
elections and advanced the politics of genuine change.
Cordillera Day 2001 supported Bayan Muna (People First), a progressive
political party of marginalized sectors, which later overwhelmingly topped the
party-list elections and garnered more than enough votes to qualify for the
maximum three seats allowed to party-list groups in the House of
Representatives.
Returning
to where it all began
Going
back to where it all started in the Chico Valley, Cordillera Day 2002 was
celebrated in the village of Dupag, situated along the Chico River, in Tabuk,
Kalinga. There was an ocular tour
to the historic sites of protests against the Chico Dam passing through military
detachments stationed inside the community. As Kalinga is the most militarized
province in the region and is beset with tribal wars together with Mountain
Province, the celebration drew attention to and passed resolutions on the issues
of tribal wars, militarization, and human rights.
The
celebration also highlighted the national and international protests against
U.S. military intervention in the Philippines, and the all-out puppetry of the
Arroyo regime to U.S President Bush’s preemptive wars of aggression and
intervention in sovereign states.
Cordillera
Day 2002 was honored with the presence of the CPA founding chairperson, lawyer
William “Billy” Claver. Aside from the remarkable support of the local
government unit, the 2002 celebration had the biggest number of international
delegates and mobilization in the recent celebrations.
In
2003, the Cordillera Day accomplished another breakthrough as this was the only
celebration ever held outside the government-defined Cordillera Administrative
Region. It was held in Lamag,
Quirino, Ilocos Sur. Cordillera Day
2003 affirmed the self-defined identity of the host community, being Igorot
indigenous peoples and reaffirmed the Cordillera mountain range as the regional
geographical coverage of the Cordillera region as defined by the Cordillera
peoples’ movement. The
celebration served to build the broadest Cordillera and Ilokandia solidarity in
saving the mighty Abra River from further destruction by Lepanto Mining for the
next generations.
Testament
to a people’s resolve
Delegates
to the Cordillera Day celebrations range from 3,000 to 4,500 persons. It
continues to be the biggest annual regional mobilization of CPA and serves as a
mass educational forum for the Cordillera mass movement. Mobilizations could
easily be much bigger if not for financial constraints. Militarization has also
been a factor restricting village delegations.
Celebrations
have also been held for the past several years in Hongkong, Belgium and Macau,
and recently by Filipino Americans in California.
These are organized by Cordillera migrants and workers together with
international solidarity partners and advocates of Cordillera struggles and
indigenous peoples rights.
The
history of Cordillera Day is the history of a vibrant peoples’ struggle for a
just society. It is an annual observance of achievements, where weaknesses are
recognized and lessons are learned. It
is an annual event for renewing the commitment and ideals pursued by the
Cordillera heroes and martyrs. It
is a testament to the unwavering resolve of the Cordillera peoples and of the
Filipino people to further strengthen the struggle for genuine regional autonomy
for the Cordillera within a truly sovereign and democratic Philippines. Bulatlat.com
Part
I: A Mirror of Cordillera History and Politics
Back
to top
We
want to know what you think of this article.
|
