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By SHERWIN DE VERA
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — More than a thousand delegates gathered on April 24 at the MOFAMCO Multipurpose Hall for the opening of the 2025 Peoples’ Cordillera Day, which commemorates the Cordillera region’s long-standing struggle for self-determination and honors its martyrs.

Originally called Macli-ing Memorial Day, the annual event began in 1985 to remember Cordillera heroes who resisted state-led development aggression. This year’s program drew participants from all Cordillera provinces, as well as visitors from the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, Mindanao, and neighboring countries.

Despite ongoing threats, harassment, and what organizers called trumped-up charges, Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) Chairperson Windel Bolinget emphasized that the region’s mass movement remains strong.

“We did not falter nor stopped. We remained as CPA and as people who continue to fight. This truly shows an assertion of our rights: the right to fight, the assertion of correct history, the determination to fight the rotten system that should be put to an end,” he said in his keynote speech, delivered in mixed Ilocano and Filipino.

The event took place amid intensifying rights violations in the region, as the government and corporations pursue mining and renewable energy investments.

CPA continues to face pressure from the government’s campaign against activists, which the state continues to accuse them of aiding communist rebels. Authorities also freeze its assets, following the terrorist designation of four of its leaders.

As of March 2025, the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance documented at least 30 cases of human rights violations under the Marcos Jr. administration, including red-tagging, enforced disappearances, fabricated charges, and extrajudicial killing.

Meanwhile, as of 2024, the government had awarded 105 energy projects and 105 large-scale mining applications across the region. These include the Makilala Mining Company, Inc. (MMCI), which threatens major river systems used by indigenous farmers and communities in Kalinga, and the Gened dams in Apayao.

On April 23, individuals identifying themselves as “former NPA rebels” distributed printed materials vilifying the event during the provincial celebration in Kalinga.

In her speech, Katribu National Convenor Beverly Longid stated, “[The] Peoples’ Cordillera Day is the only event of its kind—not only in the Philippines but globally—that consistently centers indigenous peoples’ struggles for land, self-determination, and cultural survival.”

She also added that the commemoration holds a significant fight. “It forges strong links between the indigenous peoples’ movement and the fight against imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism. It also connects with the broader struggle against imperialism and all forms of reaction,” she added.

Earlier in the day, over 100 representatives from Kalinga marched to the regional offices of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to protest MMCI’s impending operation.# nordis.net