RDC Website on Cordillera Regional Development and Autonomy

STATEMENT OF GRATITUDE TO AND PRAYERS FOR
HER EXCELLENCY FORMER PRESIDENT CORAZON C. AQUINO

In the same breath, we celebrate the life, passion and courage of the First Woman President who restored democracy in our country.

Here in CAR, we shall always look up to Her Excellency as the Mother of our Administrative Region. Though we look at CAR as the product of a people’s struggle, starting from our people’s love of independence; ardor for participatory democracy; and attachment to our ancestral land, we shall always remember that it was her presidency that gave national credence to the struggle of the Cordillera people for self-determination and self rule.

Right after President Cory was installed through people power in February 1986, she immediately created the Constitutional Commission that worked from June 2, 1986 to September 2, 1986 and produced our Constitution, ratified on February 2, 1987. Here, the provision on Regional Autonomy for Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras with the active lobbying of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), was institutionalized for the first time in the fundamental law of the land.

On September 13, 1986, Her Excellency exchanged peace tokens in a ritual called “sipat” with the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA), then headed by former priest Conrado Balweg who was among the icons of Cordillera resistance for the protection of the Cordillera Ancestral Domain and towards self-determination.

An offshoot of the “sipat” was the signing on July 15, 1987 by President Cory of Executive Order No. 220 creating the Cordillera Administrative Region followed on September 23, 1987 by Administrative Order No. 36 calling for the establishment of regional offices of various line agencies in this new region carved out from Regions I and II.

While the Cordillera will continue to shape its destiny guided by the dream of a regional autonomy, it shall always be inspired by the one president that lent the biggest ears to the Cordillera’s collective aspiration.

It is in this light that the Regional Development Council extends its condolences to the bereaved family and continues its collective prayers for the peaceful repose of the soul of the former President of the Republic of the Philippines, Her Excellency Corazon C. Aquino.

Thank You, God Almighty, for giving her to the Cordillera people. Thank you for a Cordillera region to speak of and an autonomous region to strive for.

Mabuhay ang ala-ala natin kay President Cory! Mabuhay ang Cordillera!

The Regional Development Council
Cordillera Administrative Region
01 August 2009

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