BAGUIO CITY — The beating of the traditional unity gong echoed across the Benguet Sports Complex on Wednesday as the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) marked its 39th founding anniversary.

Yet beyond the cultural performances and festivities, the annual celebration revived a lingering question: Has the region truly achieved the autonomy envisioned nearly four decades ago?

CAR was created through Executive Order No. 220, signed by then-President Corazon Aquino on 15 July 1987 following the Mount Data Peace Accord. It was intended as a transitional administrative region while the Cordillera pursued the autonomous status guaranteed under the 1987 Constitution.

That transition remains unfinished.

Congress twice passed organic acts creating an autonomous Cordillera region, but voters rejected both proposals in plebiscites in 1990 and 1998, leaving CAR as an administrative region rather than an autonomous one.

For government officials, autonomy means greater fiscal powers, administrative decentralization and local control over development, allowing the region to retain more revenues from mining, energy and agriculture while accelerating infrastructure and economic programs.

For many indigenous leaders and grassroots organizations, however, autonomy carries a broader meaning. They argue it should guarantee stronger protection of ancestral domains, recognition of indigenous governance systems, and the power to reject projects they believe threaten their communities.

Those demands trace their roots to the struggle against the Chico River Dam project during the Marcos administration, when indigenous communities resisted plans that would have submerged ancestral lands.

The movement's most enduring symbol remains tribal leader Macli-ing Dulag, who was killed by government soldiers on 24 April 1980. His death galvanized opposition to the project, which was later abandoned, and inspired the annual observance of Cordillera Day every April 24 among people's organizations.

While the regional government commemorates CAR's creation every July 15, many grassroots groups continue to regard April 24 as the true symbol of the Cordillera's struggle for self-determination.

As this year's anniversary concludes and the unity gong is passed to the next host province, the region's long-standing pursuit of autonomy remains unresolved, highlighting a constitutional promise that has yet to be fulfilled.