The Cordillera
Administrative Region (CAR) is a region in the Philippines composed of the
provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalingaand Mountain Province, as
well as Baguio City, the regional center. The Cordillera Administrative Region
encompasses most of the areas within the Cordillera Central mountains of Luzon,
the largest mountain range in the country. It is the country's only land-locked
region. The region is home to numerous indigenous tribes collectively called
the Igorot
On June 18, 1966,
Republic Act No. 4695 was enacted to split Mountain Province into four separate
and independent provinces of Mountain Province, Benguet, Ifugao and
Kalinga-Apayao.
Prior to the
formal creation of Cordillera Administrative Region, as a consequence of the
constitutional mandate under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the former four
provinces was loosely under Cagayan Valley Region while the fifth province Abra
was grouped under Ilocos Region.
On July 15, 1987,
President Corazon C. Aquino issued Executive Order No. 220 which created the
Cordillera Administrative Region, that includedMountain Province, Benguet,
Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao and annexed the province of Abra as part of the
Cordillera Administrative Region, giving the region formal autonomy as part of
her political compromise to the Cordillera People's Liberation Army, a rebel
group operating in the mountain region.
On February 14,
1995, Kalinga-Apayao, one of the five provinces of the region was split into
two separate and independent provinces of Apayao and Kalinga with the enactment
of Republic Act No. 7878.
Several attempts
at legalizing autonomy in the Cordillera region have failed in two separate
plebiscites. An affirmative vote for the law on regional autonomy is a
precondition by the 1987 Philippine Constitution to give the region autonomy in
self-governance much like the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao in southern
Philippines. The first law Republic Act No. 6766, took effect on October 23,
1989 but failed to muster a majority vote in the plebiscite on January 30,
1990.[3] The second law, Republic Act No. 8438 passed by Congress of the
Philippines on December 22, 1997, also failed to pass the approval of the
Cordillera peoples in a region-wide referendum on March 7, 1998.
At present, a
third organic act of the Cordillera is in the offing supported by the
Cordillera Regional Development Council.
