Welcome to cordillera NATION!

IPCN (Indigenous People of Cordillera Nation) is an autonomous organization that pushes to create a nation within the Philippines where every people and tribe live and learn the value of concerted and unified mass action towards economic initiative. Empowered by the Section 16 of the IPRA law, the so-called “Indigenous Political Structure” has come to pass after several attempts. There are about more than one hundred indigenous political structure, and Cordillera is able to create a national based Customary Pact which is the Bodong System.

This Bodong Peace Pact under the PAGTA law is regionalized among the six provinces and two cities within the Cordillera Nation. Its mission is headed towards defining the substance and features of a program for a self-determining and self-governing system of the indigenous people in the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

CAR (Autonomous Cordillera Region) was established through Executive Order No. 220 in 1987, aiming to govern the region, foster economic and social progress, and lay the groundwork for the Autonomous Region in the Cordillera. When the EO was signed, different CAR Bodies was formed purposedly to prepare for the establishment of the autonomy. According the Supreme Pangat Candaya and Chairman of IPCN, Mailed Molina, the CAR Bodies are composed of the Cordillera Executive Board, the Cordillera Regional Assembly and the Cordillera Bodong Administration.

The Cordillera Administrative Region asserted its autonomy by establishing the independent Cordillera Nation, a nation within the Philippines. But the desire for autonomy stemmed from the meager annual budget allocated to CAR by the Philippine government, merely PHP 1.00 ($0.018). The people, through the principle of “Free and Prior Informed Consent”, expressed their desire for economic independence and protection from exploitation and abuse. 

Capitalizing on rights granted to the ICC/IPs by various laws and international conventions, including the 1986 Executive Order #220, the 1989 Republic Act 6766, the 1989 International Labor Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, and Section 26 of the U.N’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Sections 7, 13, 16 and 17 of the Philippine Republic Act No. 8371, the Cordillera Nation was established to address longstanding injustices against all indigenous people, the preservation of its culture and chart a new economic development path forward.

The journey of Cordillera to autonomous nationhood fulfillment is almost impossible. But with the help and support from an international organization, the GGMF (Global Gold Monetary Fund), gives hope and encouragement to the people of Cordillera to continue pursuing sustainable development where responsibilities and benefits are equitably shared by all.