Cordillera People's Liberation Army | |
---|---|
Leader | Conrado Balweg (Founder) Abrenian Melchor Balance (Officer-in-Charge) [1] |
Dates of operation | 1986 – 2011 |
Motives | Cordillera autonomy, indigenous rights |
Active regions | Philippines |
Status | Inactive |
Size | About 1,000 (2013) |
The Cordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA) was a militant organization based in the Cordillera region in the Philippines founded by Conrado Balweg.
In 1986, the CPLA broke away from the communist New People's Army (NPA), criticizing the latter for its incompetence in pursuing its goals.
The formation of the CPLA also saw the merger of the Tingguian Liberation Force, a splinter group from NPA Abra to form the Cordillera organization. [1] Their goal was to fight for the self-determination of the people of Cordillera. [2]
In September 13, 1986, the CPLA and the Government of the Philippines made a "sipat" (ceasefire) at Mt. Data Hotel, in Bauko, Mountain Province. The agreement between the two entities was called the 1986 Mount Data Peace Accord. [3] [4]
In 1999, the organization's founder, Conrado Balweg, was assassinated by the NPA. [2]
A closure agreement between the CPLA and the Government of the Philippines was signed on July 4, 2011, at the Rizal Hall in Malacañang Palace. The agreement called for the disarmament of the group, the reintegration of the militants into mainstream society and the conversion of the militant group into a socio-economic organization. [5]
![]() | This section needs to be updated.(March 2021) |
![]() |
While the group has stopped armed confrontation, the CPLA remains extant as of 2013, and still campaigns for greater autonomy in the Cordilleras with about 1,000 members. [1]
Several persons had claimed to be the legal representatives of CPLA and has tarnished the image of the group. In 2016, a man named Conrado Dieza misrepresented himself as the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) chair, and Nilo Tayag, purportedly an Aglipayan bishop, used the name of CPLA in soliciting cash, deceiving fellow Filipinos into shelling out a certain amount of money in exchange for government positions and projects, and claiming they have the ears of President Duterte and all senior government officials. Dieza and Tayag misleadingly announced that Environment Secretary Gina Lopez will provide P300 million to the CPLA and DFF, and that they will be appointed to key positions in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This is after also announcing that they will be named chair and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. [6] However, this contention was defended by the party of Dieza and Tayag. [7] Several factions were also allegedly created to conform with the programs of the Philippine National Government. In 2018, the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) faction led by Conrado Dieza, Mailed Molina, and Jude Wal was supposed to hold a Regional Federalism Summit at the capitol gym but the DILG Provincial Director, Mayer Adong, said that his office did not recognize the summit as a legitimate activity of the CPLA. Governor Jocel Baac of Kalinga issued then a statement saying that the growing presence of the said CPLA group poses a problem to the peace and order situation in Kalinga and was counterproductive to the campaign for Cordillera autonomy and Federalism. [8]
Numerous leftist groups led by Cordillera People's Alliance accused the CPLA of being backed by the Philippine government after its "sipat" in 1986, citing its integration into the Armed Forces of the Philippines and alleged human rights atrocities while being used by the government for its counter-insurgency program. [9]
Kalinga, officially the Province of Kalinga, is a landlocked province in the Philippines situated within the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Tabuk and borders Mountain Province to the south, Abra to the west, Isabela to the east, Cagayan to the northeast, and Apayao to the north. Kalinga and Apayao are the result of the 1995 partitioning of the former province of Kalinga-Apayao which was seen to better service the respective needs of the various indigenous peoples in the area.
The Cordillera Administrative Region, 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 insular country, bordered by the Ilocos Region to the west and southwest, and by the Cagayan Valley Region to the north, east, and southeast. It is the least populous region in the Philippines, with a population less than that of the city of Manila.
The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera Mountain Range of northern Luzon, Philippines, often referred to by the exonym Igorot people, or more recently, as the Cordilleran peoples, are an ethnic group composed of nine main ethnolinguistic groups whose domains are in the Cordillera Mountain Range, altogether numbering about 1.5 million people in the early 21st century.
The Communist Party of the Philippines is a far-left, Marxist–Leninist–Maoist revolutionary organization and communist party in the Philippines, formed by Jose Maria Sison on 26 December 1968. It is designated as a terrorist group by the United States Department of State together with Sison and its armed wing New People's Army (NPA) in 2002. The European Union renewed its terrorist designation on the organization in 2019, though a 2009 ruling by the EU's second highest court delisted Sison as a "person supporting terrorism" and reversed a decision by member governments to freeze assets. According to the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook, the CPP and the NPA aims to destabilize the Philippines' economy and overthrow the national government.
Abra, officially the Province of Abra, is a 3rd class province in the Cordillera Administrative Region of the Philippines. Its capital is the municipality of Bangued. It is bordered by Ilocos Norte on the northwest, Apayao on the northeast, Kalinga on the mid-east, Mountain Province on the southeast, and Ilocos Sur on the southwest.
The 1998 Cordillera Autonomy plebiscite was held on March 7, 1998. In the plebiscite, the people of Cordillera were asked if they wanted to be autonomous region under Republic Act No. 8438. The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) consists of the provinces of Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province and Apayao.
The New People's Army rebellion is an ongoing conflict between the government of the Philippines and the New People's Army (NPA), which is the armed wing of the Marxist–Leninist–Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). It is the world's longest ongoing communist insurgency, and is the largest, most prominent communist armed conflict in the Philippines, seeing more than 43,000 insurgency-related fatalities between 1969 and 2008. Because the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) which is the legal wing of the CPP, is often associated with the conflict, it is often also called the CPP-NPA-NDF conflict, or simply the C/N/N conflict, especially in the context of peace talks with the Philippine government.
Elections were held in Cordillera Administrative Region for seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines on May 10, 2010.
The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, is an Islamist militant organization based in Mindanao, the Philippines. It follows the Wahhabi ideology that is currently being spread by Wahhabi preachers in the country. It is a smaller player in the overall Moro insurgency in the Philippines and is mostly active in Maguindanao and other places in central Mindanao. It is a breakaway group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front founded by Ameril Umbra Kato. Following Kato's death, the group split into three factions, one of which has aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while the other two are less radical.
The history of communist armed conflicts in the Philippines is closely related to the history of Communism in the Philippines, with various armed conflict linked to the armed wings of the various communist organizations that have evolved since 1930. The two largest conflicts have been the Hukbalahap Rebellion of 1942–1954, and the ongoing rebellion of the New People's Army, which began in 1969 under the auspices of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). But various splinter groups have since separated from the CPP and have had a history of armed conflict with the Philippine government since then.
Communism in the Philippines emerged in the first half of the 20th century during the American Colonial Era of the Philippines. Communist movements originated in labor unions and peasant groups. The communist movement has had multiple periods of popularity and relevance to the national affairs of the country, most notably during the Second World War and the Martial Law Era of the Philippines. Currently the communist movement is underground and considered an insurgent movement by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The following is the timeline of events of CPP-NPA-NDF rebellion, a conflict between the government of the Philippines, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People's Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Conrado Balweg 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 the Philippines. He was also known by the nom-de-guerreKa Ambo.
The Cordillera autonomy movement in the Philippines refers to the campaign for greater autonomy for the Cordilleras.
The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU), formerly Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process is a government agency which handles peace talks and negotiations related to internal conflict and rebellion in the Philippines most notably the CPP-NPA-NDF and Moro conflicts.
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 (CAR) consists of the provinces of Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao, and Mountain Province, and the city of Baguio. Only Ifugao voted in favor of autonomy, and a Supreme Court case later disallowed the creation of an autonomous region with just one province.
The Mount Data Hotel is a hotel in Bauko, Mountain Province, Philippines, noted in Philippine History as the venue of the signing of the Mount Data peace accord which ended hostilities between the Philippine Government and the Cordillera People's Liberation Army - an event that was a major contributor to the establishment of the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The Mount Data Peace Accord is a peace deal signed between the government of the Philippines and the Cordillera People's Liberation Army on September 13, 1986, ending hostilities due to the latter's campaign for greater autonomy for the Cordillera region.
Balweg is a 1987 Filipino biographical action drama film directed by Antonio Perez. Inspired by the life of Catholic priest turned communist rebel Conrado Balweg, it stars Phillip Salvador as the eponymous rebel, alongside Rio Locsin, Tetchie Agbayani, Johnny Delgado, Pinky Amador, Jose Romulo, Mon Godiz, Bebong Osorio, Eddie Infante, and Baldo Marro. Produced by Viva Films, Balweg was released on July 8, 1987, and was a box office success. Phillip Salvador won both the FAMAS Award and the Film Academy of the Philippines Award for Best Actor.