By QUISHELLE GAHID and OFELIA EMPIAN
www.nordis.net

Baguio City — Santos Mero, deputy secretary general of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) in a press conference informed the press that 6000 delegates are expected to join the 26th Cordillera Day as it focuses on its theme, Advance the Politics of Change.
Mero said that the theme will also serve as a focus for this coming local and national election in May 2010. He explained that the celebration and its theme will be the guide of whoever candidate gets the chance to get elected to positions this 2010.

Also, it is for them to focus more on the issues of the people such as: economic crisis, human rights violations, climate change, development aggression, militarization, and illegal mining in specific places of the Philippines where the rights of indigenous peoples are mostly violated.

The CPA’s Baguio Chapter Tongtongan Ti Umili is host to the centralized celebration the whole day today, April 25, 2010 at the Melvin Jones, Baguio City. Expected are representatives from the different provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), progressive party lists, local and national candidates supporting politics of change, advocates from Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Manila and other parts of the country and overseas.

Mero said there will be a cultural parade, solidarity night and messages from indigenous people’s rights advocates. The celebration is also the Cordillera mass movement’s tribute to martyrs like: Ama Macliing Dulag and Pedro Dungoc.

Mero reiterated that the two prominent leaders are reverently remembered for supporting the people of Kalinga and Bontoc fight against the World Bank- funded Chico River Basin Hydroelectric Dam Project of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
In addition, the celebration will also be in memory of the late Francis Macliing, son of Dulag. #nordis.net