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What is there to celebrate?

Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 875 declaring July 15 as a special non-working holiday in the Cordillera Administrative Region. The proclamation was warmly received by the officials of the region. And the nature of politicians is to seize the opportunity to announce their supposed achievements which are in reality, empty promises.

Mt. Province Gov. Maximo Dalog claimed in a State of the Region Address (SORA) this week that their celebration of Cordillera Day is in commemoration of the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) through Executive Order 220 issued by Corazon Aquino on July 15, 1987.

CAR, as a government bureaucracy has only proven one thing: first, it served as a machinery to smoothly facilitate government exploitative projects; second, it was used to co-opt leaders (pseudo leaders) for the advancement of conduit state and corporate interests.

The first is also called development aggression, as it exploits the ancestral lands and resources of the people also at their expense. It is for corporate interests protected by the state laws, like the Mining Act and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), and its machineries like the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). Data from the government’s Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau (MGB) show that government has already opened 67% (1,226,394.8 hectares) of the Cordillera’s land area (1,829,368 hectares) to foreign corporations through various mining schemes.

Military presence in the region proved to protect these state and corporate interests. The tri-boundaries of Abra-Ilocos-Sur-Mountain Province are being bombed and militarized to ensure existing mining operations and the entry of applications. The militarization disrupted economic activities, hurt civilians the most, leading to various forms of human rights violations NOLCOM Spokesperson Preme Monta admitted in a local ABS-CBN interview that military presence aims to protect the existing and presently applied mining applications.

The second is also called divide and rule tactics to ensure peoples’ division while government pushes for development aggression. It created the Cordillera Executive Board (CEB) and Cordillera Regional Assembly (CRA) to accommodate pseudo-leaders. It institutionalized the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army and the Cordillera Bodong Administration (CPLA/CBAd) under that bureaucracy to “sell” the state and corporate interests to the communities.

In the EO 220’s 18 years of existence, we witnessed the mute positions of these groups on the peoples’ anti-mining and anti-militarization position. They never raised support, but their loyalty remained with the national leadership. This is the reason why they want the bureaucracy to remain an administrative region. They want it to be institutionally administered by Malacañang. They want to remain stamp padded by Malacañang. And they will always oppose genuine autonomy.

And yes, as a reward for their unwavering loyalty to Malacañang, GMA issued a proclamation integrating the CPLA into the AFP and the PNP. This, despite the CPLA’s records of human rights violations.

What is there then to celebrate? The continuing national oppression by the state? Aw, come on, tell that to the morons. The proclamation will not save you, Madam President, from your sagging popularity. Like the communities suffering from your policy, we do call for your resignation. #

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