Baguio City – A surviving signatory to the historic Mount Data ‘ sipat’ urged the national government to return to the Cordillera Bodong Administration–Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA) the tokens that the group gave that paved the way for the signing of the peace agreement between the government peace panel and the breakaway faction of the New Peoples Army (NPA).
Leonardo Bun-as, one of the two surviving signatories to the Mount Data peace agreement, in a virtual message during the 34th commemoration of the important events that transpired in the Cordillera’s history, stated that the Cordillera people already fulfilled their obligation in the peace agreement by embracing peace for over 3 decades now that is why the burden is on the government to also comply with its mandate to grant autonomy to the region.
He pointed out it will be best for the government to return to the CBA-CPLA the peace tokens that the group gave to former President Corazon C. Aquino during the signing of the peace agreement by next year if the region will not be able to achieve autonomy through a law to be enacted by Congress and signed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
In exchange for a rosary, Bible book and an M-16 Armalite rifle from the government, the CBA-CPLA gave a shield, spear and tapis that sealed the historic peace agreement.
Bun-as underscored that one of the conditions of the peace agreement that has yet to be fulfilled is the grant of autonomy to the Cordillera where such status must encompass the aspirations of the people for the region to have greater control of its resources with lesser restraint from outside forces and for the preservation of the region’s rich culture and history as well as the distinct identity of the people who are mostly members of indigenous cultural communities equitably distributed in the different tribes based in the various localities.
The Mount Data peace agreement on September 13, 1986 paved the way for the inclusion of the pertinent provisions in the 1987 Constitution that provided for the establishment of the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordillera and the subsequent issuance of Executive Order (EO) No. 220 on July 15, 1987 that created the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), a special temporary administrative region tasked to accelerate the socio-economic development of the region, administer the affairs of the government and prepare the region for autonomy.
Bun-as said that the government should already leave the issues and concerns of the Cordillera to be addressed by the people themselves once the peace tokens will be returned next year because it seems that the grant of autonomy under the present administration is dim amidst the snowballing clamor from the people for the enactment of the appropriate law that will establish the autonomous region.
Despite the failed two attempts for the region to achieve autonomy because of certain issues on the watered down autonomy law in the first attempt and politics on the second attempt, Bun-as expressed optimism that the region’s third crack on autonomy will be successful to achieve the major goals of the Mount Data peace agreement as the same remained uncompleted over the past three decades. (RPN DZBS Baguio News Team)