The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is a region in the Philippines composed of the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalingaand Mountain Province, as well as Baguio City, the regional center. The Cordillera Administrative Region encompasses most of the areas within the Cordillera Central mountains of Luzon, the largest mountain range in the country. It is the country's only land-locked region. The region is home to numerous indigenous tribes collectively called the Igorot

On June 18, 1966, Republic Act No. 4695 was enacted to split Mountain Province into four separate and independent provinces of Mountain Province, Benguet, Ifugao and Kalinga-Apayao.

Prior to the formal creation of Cordillera Administrative Region, as a consequence of the constitutional mandate under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the former four provinces was loosely under Cagayan Valley Region while the fifth province Abra was grouped under Ilocos Region.

On July 15, 1987, President Corazon C. Aquino issued Executive Order No. 220 which created the Cordillera Administrative Region, that includedMountain Province, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao and annexed the province of Abra as part of the Cordillera Administrative Region, giving the region formal autonomy as part of her political compromise to the Cordillera People's Liberation Army, a rebel group operating in the mountain region.

On February 14, 1995, Kalinga-Apayao, one of the five provinces of the region was split into two separate and independent provinces of Apayao and Kalinga with the enactment of Republic Act No. 7878.

Several attempts at legalizing autonomy in the Cordillera region have failed in two separate plebiscites. An affirmative vote for the law on regional autonomy is a precondition by the 1987 Philippine Constitution to give the region autonomy in self-governance much like the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao in southern Philippines. The first law Republic Act No. 6766, took effect on October 23, 1989 but failed to muster a majority vote in the plebiscite on January 30, 1990.[3] The second law, Republic Act No. 8438 passed by Congress of the Philippines on December 22, 1997, also failed to pass the approval of the Cordillera peoples in a region-wide referendum on March 7, 1998.

At present, a third organic act of the Cordillera is in the offing supported by the Cordillera Regional Development Council.