Federalism: We need to educate the educated

Last Tuesday’s banner headline in The Philippine STAR blared, “Federalism a tough sell.” Apparently this was only the view of newly re-elected Senate President Franklin Drilon and Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto who pointed out that it would entail extensive constitutional amendments. While I do not disagree with their observations… however what is needed for federalism to succeed in this country is to have an open mind.

Unfortunately, old politicos like Sen. Drilon and Sen. Recto have lived in their comfort zones enjoying the advantages of a unitary system of governance, which the Philippines as a nation have lived since the enactment of the 1935 Constitution, which was copied from the US Constitution, except that we did not follow its federal form of governance.

It is for this reason why places faraway from the nation’s capital get the least in development funds, while the Island of Luzon enjoys complete and total infrastructure development. I have ridden my motorcycle so many times in the past to Luzon from Matnog, Sorsogon to Aparri and you won’t encounter any bad roads. But I dare you go and travel to smaller towns in the Visayas or Mindanao and you will complain about the poor state of our roads, where some roads still have to get their first taste of asphalt.

Let me remind Senators Drilon and Recto that presumptive President Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte won by a wide margin over his political rivals in the presidential race. That election was the Filipino people’s way of rejecting the promises of Liberal Party (LP) candidates who chant the Daang Matuwid slogan, to which the majority of our electorate were already fed up with and totally rejected it in the May 9 elections.

A month before the May 9 elections, Mayor Duterte was the guest speaker of the annual convention of Motorcycle Clubs in the Philippines which was held at the Plaza Independencia in Cebu City. After his rousing speech, I ambush interviewed the Davao City Mayor asking him, “What was your timetable to install a federal system in the Philippines?” Mayor Digong’s reply to me was, “If I’m elected President, I will create a committee to educate the Filipino people about the benefits of federalism. After six months, I shall call for Charter changes in order to install a federal system in our country.”

This was the statement of Mayor Duterte that made me decide to support his presidential bid because amongst all the presidentiables, he was the only one selling real and genuine political change for this country. While he has not yet assumed the Office of the President, the reactions of both Senators Drilon and Recto on federalism only proves that these two need to be the first to be educated about federalism.

Just think… if the ordinary man on the street, many of whom are unschooled needs to be educated about federalism, how much more our educated class represented by Senators Drilon and Recto? So let’s start educating the educated class by giving them the meaning of federalism which you can find in Wikipedia.

“A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, are typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Alternatively, federation is a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided between a central authority and a number of constituent regions so that each region retains some degree of control over its internal affairs.

The governmental or constitutional structure found in a federation is known as federalism. It can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state. Germany, with 16 Bundesländer, is an example of a federation, whereas neighboring Austria and its Bundesländer was a unitary state with administrative divisions that became federated, and neighboring France, by contrast, has always been unitary.”

In case you didn’t know… Australia, Canada, the United States of America, France, Russia, Brazil, Switzerland, Germany including our neighbor Malaysia are federated states and if federalism is working in these countries, I don’t see any reason why it won’t work in the Philippines. Of course I expect people like Sen. Drilon and Recto to throw a monkey wrench on our road to federalism. But we shall overcome these myopic people who cannot look forward to the reality that the economic and political future of the Philippines will be enhanced by our shift from our present crummy unitary form of governance and into a Federal form of government. The charge to shift our nation into a better future will be led by President Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and we are behind him a 1,000% so we will see a Federal Philippines just like what they have in Canada, the USA, Germany and Malaysia.

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