The Mount Data Peace Accord is a peace deal signed between the government of the Philippines and 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. Background In 1979, the Itneg Catholic priest Conrado Balweg decided to join the New Peo ...

on September 13, 1986, ending hostilities due to the latter's campaign for greater autonomy for the

Cordillera region The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR; ; ), also known as the Cordillera Region and Cordillera (), is an administrative region in the Philippines, situated within the island of Luzon. It is the only landlocked region in the archipelago, bor ...

Background

Prior to 1966, the Cordillera region was administered under one unit, the old

Mountain Province Mountain Province (; ; ; ; ; ) is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc while Bauko is the largest municipality. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as Mountain ...

. Abra has been its own independent province. In June 1966, the province was divided into smaller provinces—namely, Abra,

Benguet Benguet (), officially the Province of Benguet ('';'' ; ; ; ), is a landlocked Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital cit ...

Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of 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 west, Mountain Province to the north, Isabela t ...

, and

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 ...

Under the Regionalization Law or Presidential Order No. 1 issued by President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

, the Philippines' provinces were organized under 13 regions. The Cordilleran provinces were grouped under two separate regions: Benguet (including

Baguio Baguio ( , , ), officially the City of Baguio (; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", ...

) and Mountain Province were included under Region I (Ilocos Region), and Ifugao and Kalinga-Apayao were included under Region II (Cagayan Valley). An armed movement in the

that advocated for greater autonomy for people in the area arose from the awarding of of land, which covers parts of Abra, Mountain Province, Kalinga-Apayao, Ilocos Norte, and Ilocos Sur, to the Cellophil Resources Corporation (CRC) and Cellulose Processing Corporation (CPC), which mostly affected the

Tinguian The Itneg people also known as "Tinguian" or "Tingguian" are an Austronesian ethnic group indigenous to the Philippines. They are part of the broader Cordilleran or Igorot group, despite the Itnegs themselves not identifying as such. The Itneg p ...

Itneg The Itneg people also known as "Tinguian" or "Tingguian" are an Austronesian ethnic group indigenous to the Philippines. They are part of the broader Cordilleran or Igorot group, despite the Itnegs themselves not identifying as such. The Itneg p ...

people of Abra. The proposal to build the Chico Dam also rose tension in the region. Several ethnic groups of the Cordillera launched an organized effort to air their grievances against CPC through dialogue, although this was met by suppression by the Marcos administration. Some Tinguian, including

Conrado Balweg Conrado Balweg (December 29, 1942 – December 31, 1999) was a former Filipino Catholic priest and rebel who was the founder of the Cordillera People's Liberation Army, a militant group which advocated autonomy for the Cordillera region in th ...

, joined the communist rebellion led by the

New People's Army The New People's Army (; abbreviated NPA or BHB) is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). It acts as the CPP's principal organization, aiming to consolidate political power from what it sees as the present "bourgeo ...

(NPA). The

led by Balweg splintered from the

(NPA) to independently launch an armed struggle fight for

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

of the people of Cordillera.

Deal

On September 13, 1986, the Cordillera Bodong Administration–

(CBA–CPLA) and the

government of the Philippines The government of the Philippines () has three interdependent branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Philippines is Central government, governed as a unitary state under a presidential system, presidential representativ ...

made a "''sipat''" (

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

) at the Mt. Data Hotel, in

Bauko Bauko, officially the Municipality of Bauko (; ; ; ; ; ) is a municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 32,021 people. History Chico River Dam Project Bauko was one o ...

. As part of the indigenous treaty, the two sides exchanged peace tokens; the CBA–CPLA gave representatives of the Philippine government a spear and a shield, and the Philippine government presented the Cordilleran side an assault rifle (from the Armed Forces of the Philippines) and a Bible and rosary (from President

Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...

Aftermath

The Cordillera People's Liberation Army remains an extant organization, which has ceased armed operations, and the

Cordillera Administrative Region The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR; ; ), also known as the Cordillera Region and Cordillera (), is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines, situated within the island of Luzon. It is the only Landlocked co ...

was formed in preparation for the possible transition of the area to an autonomous region. An autonomous region in the Cordilleras is yet to be established, with two plebiscite (

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

) proposing the establishment of a Cordillera autonomous region failing to gain enough traction.

References

{{reflist 1986 in the Philippines History of the Cordillera Administrative Region Ceasefires History of Mountain Province History of the Philippines (1986–present) Military history of the Philippines Communist armed conflicts in the Philippines