WHEN Edsa People's Power broke in February 1986 and the Newscenter-4 where I worked as news video editor was in a state of ownership recovery, I had the inkling then that my technical services is not likely to be absorbed by the new administration so I left Manila and finally settled home.
After three months doing odd jobs such as running a shooting gallery at the Burnham Carnival where I also got a three stitch scar on my forehead, I volunteered to work at the National Media Production Center under the new revolutionary government of President Corazon C. Aquino. I was assigned a job as Public Information Assistance Desk Officer (PIADO) at the NMPC Regional Sub-Office at the Old Auditorium located within Burnham Park but we derived our salaries from the NMPC office in San Fernando, La Union.
As the Cory government was under political unrest with power failures, coup d'états and several destabilization moves, there were indignation rallies and protests happening in the Cordillera too instigated by a group advocating for genuine autonomy. The group who opposed the damming of the Chico River in Kalinga and the logging concessions for the Cellophil Resources Corporation in Abra had varied concepts of autonomy which negate the presence of Manila based bureaucracy including its armed forces but continue to be funded by the national government.
Government emissaries were sent by the Cory administration and dialogues were undertaken in the uplands with national government representatives such as Sen. Butz Aquino and Sen. Jose Wright Diokno. The peace talks took place on September 13 1986 with President Cory and rebel priest Conrado Balweg together with tribal elder Ama Mario Yag-ao in Mt. Data, Bauko, Mountain Province and that started several consultations with local leaders and organization such as the Cordillera Broad Coalition, Cordillera Budong Administration and others that already slipped my memory. On July 15, 1987, we went to Malacanang to witness the signing of Executive Order 220 creating the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). With EO 220, the provinces of Abra, Mt. Province and Benguet, together with the chartered city of Baguio, which had comprised part of Region I and the provinces of Ifugao and Kalinga-Apayao which had comprised part of Region II shall now form a separate region which is CAR. This was followed by President Cory Aquino's Executive Order 36 which establishes regional offices in CAR that created regional positions for the Cordillera Administrative Region. This was also the time when NMPC became the Philippine Information Agency where I consider myself as one of the earliest CAR employee to have signed up following Charles C. Leung and Danilo Carino who has already left the service.
When the 1987 Philippine Constitution was ratified in early 1987 signaling the country's return to democracy, we helped the Philippine Management Staff (PMS) with the search for local leaders that will represent the Cordillera Regional Assembly (CRA) and Cordillera Executive Board (CEB). But what actually happened was the positions were filled up by political appointees or by men and women endorsed by the congressmen, governors or mayors from the region. A Cordillera Regional Consultative Commission (CRCC) was also formed to draft an organic act and all these offices composed what we termed as CAR bodies.
Helen Reyes, a Batangenia before finally becoming my wife was sent by PIA central office as the officer-in-charge of PIA-CAR to help spearhead the advocacy of the Organic Act drafted by the CRCC and saw revisions in congress. To cut my story short, two Organic Acts were unanimously rejected by the Cordillera people during separate plebiscites and the so-called CAR bodies practically ceased to exist as a governing body when then President Joseph E. Estrada only allotted them with a one peso operations budget.
What my memory cannot comprehend today is the resurgence of younger members of Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army especially to Baguio City and Benguet because I haven't heard of any combatant from these places when I was covering the peace talks up to the time when the late Fr. Conrado Balweg was killed in his own province. Now that we are again celebrating Cordillera Month this coming July 15, with the advocacy logo that I designed showing a gong with a man blowing horn instead of a spear on a terraced hill, I guess, I'll be again covering the event as I used to in many years. The only difference this time is that I will no longer be walking with my wife or daughters but with my grandson Akiboy who will be turning two years old by then. Having said that, it is now time for me to look for a vest or chaleco from the old market as I am sure it is hard to find one at the big mall. Thanks for following my Cordillera chronicles.
