A plebiscite for the ratification of the organic act creating the Cordillera Autonomous Region was held on January 30, 1990, to ask if the voters in the Cordillera Administrative Region wanted to be an autonomous region under Republic Act No. 6766. The

Cordillera Administrative Region The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR; ilo, Rehion/Deppaar Administratibo ti Kordiliera; fil, Rehiyong Pampangasiwaan ng Cordillera), also known as the Cordillera Region and Cordillera (), is an administrative region in the Philippines, ...

(CAR) consists of the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Abra, Benguet,

Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of Ifugao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ifugao; tl, Lalawigan ng Ifugao), is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Lagawe and it borders Benguet to the ...

Kalinga-Apayao Kalinga-Apayao () was a province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. It was formed, along with Benguet, Ifugao, and the new Mountain Province, from the earlier Mountain Province, with the passage o ...

, and Mountain Province, and the city of

Baguio Baguio ( , ), officially the City of Baguio ( ilo, Siudad ti Baguio; fil, Lungsod ng Baguio), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", ...

. Only Ifugao voted in favor of autonomy, and a Supreme Court case later disallowed the creation of an autonomous region with just one province. This was the first attempt by the Cordillera autonomy movement to create an autonomous region after years of conflict by the

Cordillera People's Liberation Army The Cordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA) was a militant organization based in the Cordillera region in the Philippines founded by Conrado Balweg. Formation In 1986, the CPLA broke away from the communist New People's Army (NPA), critici ...

. A second plebiscite in 1998 resulted in

Apayao Apayao, officially the Province of Apayao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Apayao; fil, Lalawigan ng Apayao), is a landlocked province in the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Kabugao serves as its capital. The provincial capit ...

(by then separated from

Kalinga Kalinga may refer to: Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology * Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India ** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature ** Kalinga script, an ancient writ ...

) voting for autonomy, and an establishment of an autonomous region still failed.

Background

A plebiscite was held concerning the establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordilleras on January 30, 1990 via ratification of Republic Act No. 6766, otherwise known as "An Act Providing for an Organic Act for the Cordillera Autonomous Region". Voters registered in the component localities of the

(

of Abra, Benguet,

, and Mountain Province, and the highly urbanized

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, which is not included in any province) participating in the vote. As per law, only provinces (and Baguio) which voted in favor of the ratification of the law would constitute part of the new Cordillera Autonomous Region.

Campaign

In the run-up to the plebiscite, the Baguio City Council and the

Benguet Provincial Board The Benguet Provincial Board is the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial legislature) of the Philippine province of Benguet. The members are elected via plurality-at-large voting: the province is divided into two districts, the first sending fo ...

both voted for the exclusion of their localities from the autonomous region due to what they described as "lopsided" tax-sharing system, where both Baguio and Benguet, the most prosperous places in the would-be autonomous region, be subsidizing the rest of the region. Conrado Balweg's group campaigned for a "no" vote in the plebiscite. Balweg said that the organic act is "a bogus law because what we fought for is not there."

Results

Initial results showed voters in five provinces and in Baguio rejecting autonomy, with only

favoring inclusion. Vice President

Salvador Laurel Salvador Roman Hidalgo Laurel (, November 18, 1928 – January 27, 2004), also known as Doy Laurel, was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the vice president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992 under President Corazon Aquino an ...

, who earlier predicted the rejection of the measure, said that the government should seriously consider switching to a

federal system Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments ( provincial, state, cantonal, territorial, or other sub-unit governments) in a single p ...

, and that it, and the earlier rejection of autonomy in a Mindanao plebiscite is a significant victory for the Nacionalista Party. The

Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(COMELEC) declared on February 14, 1990 that the plebiscite failed in Baguio and in all provinces except Ifugao. With the rejection being apparent, it was suggested to bring the question if establishing the Cordillera Autonomous Region with Ifugao as its sole component province to the COMELEC. According to Senator

Aquilino Pimentel Jr. Aquilino Quilinging Pimentel Jr. (, December 11, 1933 – October 20, 2019), commonly known as Nene Pimentel, was a Filipino politician and human rights lawyer who was one of the leading political opposition leaders during the regime of Ferdinan ...

, the rejection was based on lowlander settlers not considering themselves as Cordillerans, hence rejecting the law, while the highlander communities preferred the status quo. Analysts said that highlanders rejected the autonomy as they see the Act as a mere tool of the economic and political classes to perpetuate their exploitation, and that vested interests of politicians and multinational corporations would even "strengthen their dominion in the region".

Aftermath

The Commission on Elections issued a resolution on February 14, 1990 declaring that Ifugao shall form the Cordillera Autonomous Region. In March 1990, then-President Corazon Aquino ordered for the reorganization of government offices in the impending creation of the Cordillera Autonomous Region, with Ifugao as the sole province. In December 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that the constitution prohibited a single province constituting an autonomous region, so Ifugao was not made an autonomous region to itself, and returned to the Cordillera Administrative Region. Congress passed another law as an organic act for Cordillera autonomy in December 1997.> A second plebiscite a year later was resoundingly rejected, with only

(by then a separate province) voting for autonomy.

References

External links

Republic Act No. 6766
{{Cordillera Administrative Region elections Regional plebiscites in the Philippines 1990 elections in the Philippines 1990 referendums Autonomy referendums Presidency of Corazon Aquino Politics of the Cordillera Administrative Region