Baguio City – Secrets and real stories surrounding the events connected to the late Conrado Balweg as a champion of Cordillera’s clamor for self-determination surfaced during the Writeshop on Cordillera’s Pursuit for Regional Autonomy held March 21, 2015 at Hotel Elizabeth, Baguio City.

The event, sponsored by the Regional Development Council (RDC) – CAR, is the initial phase in its venture to document actual historical accounts of Cordillera’s struggles for regional autonomy that have never been written or published in any existing literature.

Through the able guidance of Horacio “Howie” Severino of GMA 7, the principal participants – members of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA), Cordillera Bodong Association (CBA), friends and former comrades of the fallen Fr. Balweg, and other witnesses – shared with each other historic anecdotes of their personal struggles for Cordillera autonomy.

These stories were recorded, and later will be transcribed and reviewed by the storytellers themselves. With the help from professional writers, the stories shall be written and vetted by the other witnesses living in places where the stories happened.

It is the intent of the RDC-CAR and its secretariat, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) – CAR to document and compile such heroic stories into one final output to be published so that the public may know the people and the sacrifices they underwent to see the pursuit of autonomy enshrined in the constitution, and hopefully, succeed in their lifetime.

by Mark Allen Ponciano, SPCAR