DILG sets federalism roadshow in June

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is set to conduct a roadshow next month to generate support for the shift to a federal form of government.

DILG spokesman Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya said yesterday the federalism roadshow program will be held sometime in the middle of June together with the consultative commission (Concom) tasked to draft a new constitution.

“The government will go down to the ground and explain to the people what federalism is all about,” said Malaya at a news conference in Makati City.

Malaya said the places they initially plan to visit are the Cordillera Administrative Region, Negros Island, Bicol and Caraga, places where there are strong calls for a shift to federalism and decentralization of the government’s power.

President Duterte has been pushing for federalism since he was a candidate in 2016.

Malaya said they will also address what he described as the wrong perception of a recent survey by Pulse Asia which said majority of Filipinos rejected the proposed shift to a federal system of government.

He said the survey actually said that 60 percent of Filipinos favor changes in the government’s system.

Another purpose of the roadshow is to convince 30 percent of those in favor that a shift to federalism should be done during Duterte’s term.

Concom member and political science professor Julio Teehankee allayed fears that Duterte’s purpose in pushing for federalism is to perpetuate himself in power.

“I can’t understand why this is being framed as a return to a one-man rule because we have a President who is willing to spend all his political capital for this project and that is to bring power to the people,” he said.

Under the proposal, Teehankee said those seen as weaker regions will be given appropriate  assistance and time to evolve their own federal system.

“It’s a greater democratization,” he said, adding what the President is pushing for is a genuine shift to a federal system.

Meanwhile, the two-day forum themed “Multi-level Systems of Government – Structural Features and Intergovernmental Relations” aims to get the inputs from foreign experts on the basic principles behind a decentralized government.

Among these foreign experts are representatives from Nepal, India and South Africa.