The Cordillera Peoples' Alliance

International Rivers Network, July 1999

The Cordillera Peoples' Alliance (CPA) is a federation of indigenous peoples' organizations in the central mountain region of Northern Luzon, Philippines. It was formally constituted by 27 peoples' organizations during a congress in Bontoc, Mountain Province in June 1984.

The CPA's founding is a crucial step towards uniting the Cordillera indigenous peoples in the defense of their ancestral domain and in their struggle for self-determination.

The CPA's membership today includes human rights and church organizations, sectoral organizations of women, farmers, youth, students, workers and urban poor, rural community organizations and peace pact holders representing serveral village, clan and tribal groups.

Drawing strength from its experiences during its early years, the CPA continues to pursue its commitment to advance the collective interests and welfare of the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera.

CPA's Agenda

The CPA is committed to advancing the interests and welfare of the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera. It seeks to unite the various ethnolinguistic groups and sectors in the region toward the realization of the following agenda:

• Recognition of the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera to their ancestral domain. The peoples' right to safeguard the integrity of their ancestral domain, and to use, control and develop its resources, should be protected.
• Establishment of a Cordillera autonomous region. A genuinely democratic and autonomous regional government is the best vehicle through which the Cordillera peoples can exercise self-determination within the framework of a sovereign Filipino nation. Within the autonomous region, the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera can exercise legislative, executive and judicial functions that are keeping with their needs and particularities. The people will enjoy:
  • the right to their ancestral territories, including the right to the use, ownership, autonomous management, disposition and development of the land and the natural resources within these territories;
  • the right to economic prosperity;
  • the right to maintain and develop their indigenous culture, including their own economic, social and political institutions;
  • the right to a life of peace and security.