Philippines – Ang Bayan: 40 Years of GRP-CPLA Collusion in the Cordillera
We hereby share an article published in the latest October 21 issue of Ang Bayan.
With marking the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Mt. Data Peace Accord, the Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the Cordillera Bodong Administration-Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CBAd-CPLA) signed a “final peace agreement” in September at Malacañang. Ferdinand Marcos Jr personally attended the event.
The “final agreement” is an empty spectacle. It covers up the fact that the counterrevolutionary CPLA’s integration into the GRP has long been complete, and that it operates with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The CPLA is an instrument for intensifying national oppression of the Cordillera people, seizing ancestral land, plundering the environment, and imposing fascist repression.
CPLA history, crimes
The CPLA was a force that broke away from the New People’s Army (NPA) and the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines on April 7, 1986. It took with them 119 high-caliber rearms. Even prior to breaking away, Conrado Balweg who headed the CPLA had long disseminated incorrect ideas and theories within the Party and the NPA.
The CPLA entered into an agreement with the then-Aquino regime. President Corazon Aquino personally met with Balweg on September 13, 1986 at the Mount Data Hotel in Bauko, Mountain Province, and forged the 1986 Mt. Data Peace Accord, setting a ceasefire and the CPLA’s integration into the GRP. The CPLA has since served as an active instrument of the reactionary state in crafting laws and institutions to deny the Cordillera people genuine autonomy and the right to self-determination.
The CPLA served as the fascist state’s auxiliary force. The region’s revolutionary newspaper Dangadang’s final tally in 2018 recorded the CPLA killed 41 cadres and forces of the CPP and NPA, activists, and mass leaders. They were also involved in crimes of rape, theft, land grabbing, illegal detention, and extortion, all encouraged by the AFP.
The Party and the NPA took decisive action to punish and hold the CPLA accountable between 1987 and 1999. The Red army carried out a special operation against Balweg on December 31, 1999 in Malibcong, Abra, resulting in his death. The CPLA further factionalized and splintered into groups after Balweg’s death. These factions competed for funds, positions, and projects from the reactionary government and military.
Cordillera national minority sustains the struggle
The Cordillera People’s Democratic Front (CPDF) leadership unites the Cordillera national minority to fight the three basic problems of Philippine society—US imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. They are also being united to ght the national oppression they suffer.
National oppression takes six forms against the national minority of the Cordillera: (1) violation of the right to ancestral land; (2) militarization; (3) political misrepresentation and lack of respect for indigenous sociopolitical systems and institutions; (4) historical government neglect; (5) institutionalized discrimination; and (6) commercialization and misrepresentation of indigenous culture. The CPDF believes that the Cordillera national minority must participate in the national democratic revolution to advance their rights. The CPDF has a 10-point program:
1. Unite with the Filipino people to overthrow US imperialism and local reactionary rule.
2. Fight for the right to self-determination and democracy.
3. Revolutionary Fetad! People’s war for the liberation of the Cordillera and the entire Philippines!
4. Fight for the right to ancestral land and protect natural resources.
5. Implement the agrarian revolution and defend peasant rights.
6. Nationalize the strategic and basic industries in the Cordillera and implement industrialization.
7. Advance comprehensive social services.
8. Advance the liberation and equality of women and LGBT people.
9. Promote and develop the positive aspects of indigenous culture.
10. Strengthen the unity of progressive organizations within and outside the country.
October 21, 2026
ANG BAYAN
