Which is the real Cordillera Day—April 24 or July 15? PIGSA explains its stand, urges public to remember resistance

Tabuk City, Kalinga – As communities across the Cordillera celebrated the region's special day on July 15, an indigenous youth organization renewed its call to recognize April 24—not July 15—as the true Cordillera Day, urging young Cordillerans to remain vigilant against what it described as attempts to revise the history of the region's mass movement.

The statement came after the observance of the 39th anniversary of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) on July 15, following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s Proclamation No. 1334, which declared the day a special non-working holiday throughout the region.

In a statement released on July 15, the Progressive Igorots for Social Action (PIGSA) said historical revisionism threatens not only the Cordillera people's past but also their identity and collective memory. The group urged the youth to learn the region's history beyond official narratives by listening to indigenous communities and leaders of the people's movement.

"To the Cordilleran youth: remain vigilant. In a time when history is deliberately distorted, and the peoples' struggle is reduced to state-sanctioned narratives, our greatest responsibility is to defend the truth. Historical revisionism is not merely an attack on the past—it is an attack on our identity, our collective memory, and our future," the statement read.

PIGSA maintained that April 24 should be recognized as Cordillera Day because it commemorates the 1980 martyrdom of Macli-ing Dulag, the Butbut-Kalinga tribal leader who opposed the proposed Chico River Dam Project during the Marcos administration.

According to the group, Dulag's death became a defining symbol of indigenous resistance and inspired the annual observance of People's Cordillera Day, which has been commemorated by progressive organizations since the mid-1980s.

The organization also argued that although Executive Order No. 220, signed by then-President Corazon Aquino on July 15, 1987, officially created the Cordillera Administrative Region, the date should not be regarded as the continuation or culmination of the Cordillera people's struggle for self-determination.

Two dates, two perspectives

The differing observances stem from two distinct historical perspectives.

For the government, July 15 commemorates the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region through Executive Order No. 220 in 1987. Every year, the region celebrates the anniversary with official government programs highlighting regional development, unity, culture, and the continuing pursuit of autonomy.

For PIGSA, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), and other progressive indigenous organizations, however, April 24 holds deeper historical significance. They regard the date as People's Cordillera Day because it honors the sacrifice of Macli-ing Dulag and the indigenous resistance against the Chico River Dam Project, which they consider the foundation of the Cordillera people's movement for ancestral land rights, self-determination, and social justice.

What is the Cordillera mass movement?

The Cordillera mass movement refers to the broad coalition of indigenous peoples, community organizations, sectoral groups, churches, youth organizations, and advocates that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s to defend ancestral lands, indigenous rights, and the Cordillera people's right to self-determination.

The movement became widely known for opposing the Chico River Dam Project during the Marcos administration. Over the years, it expanded its advocacy to include resistance against destructive mining, land dispossession, militarization, environmental degradation, and campaigns for genuine regional autonomy.

Organizations such as the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), founded in 1984, are among the most prominent groups associated with the movement.

PIGSA said the Cordillera mass movement was built through years of collective resistance against the Chico Dam Project and other issues affecting indigenous communities.

The group argued that commemorating Cordillera Day on July 15 shifts public attention away from that history and instead emphasizes the government's creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region through Executive Order No. 220.

Challenge to the Cordilleran youth

PIGSA urged young Cordillerans to help preserve what it considers the authentic history of the Cordillera struggle, saying it is the responsibility of the present generation to ensure that the sacrifices of indigenous leaders and communities are neither forgotten nor rewritten.

"History belongs to the people, not to executive orders... To the youth of the Cordillera and beyond: our generation will decide whether our history lives on or is rewritten by those in power. Study the peoples' history beyond textbooks, official proclamations, and state narratives. To remember is an act of resistance; to organize and continue the struggle is to ensure that the Cordillera peoples' history can never be erased," the organization wrote.

While the government officially commemorates July 15 as the anniversary of the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region, progressive indigenous organizations such as PIGSA and the CPA continue to observe April 24 as People's Cordillera Day, emphasizing the region's long history of indigenous resistance and the continuing struggle for genuine self-determination.