17,000 councilors support shift to federal system of government

MANILA, Philippines — Almost 17,000 city and municipal councilors nationwide have vowed to assist in disseminating information about federalism as they expressed full support for the administration’s move to shift to a new form of government.

Department of the Interior and Local Government officer-in-charge Eduardo Año said the Philippine Councilor’s League (PCL) made the commitment through a memorandum of understanding signed between the DILG and the PCL on Tuesday.

“With this agreement, our federalism thrust will have a wider and deeper scope in terms of information dissemination,” Año said.

The DILG chief said public awareness is key to convincing people to vote for federalism in case of a plebiscite in 2019.

“Imagine, we now have 17,000 advocates all over the country,” Año said, adding the PCL has agreed to sponsor local laws and ordinances that will promote federalism in communities.

DILG Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya said the department will capacitate and certify the trained speakers of the league for federalism-related activities.

Año said the DILG will also be tapping the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) to help in the advocacy next week after PCL, which was the first group to help the department in its federalism efforts.

Still optimistic

 President Duterte tapped the DILG to spearhead the public awareness campaign for federalism and has been visiting the regions to showcase the draft federal constitution prepared by the consultative committee (Concom).

Former senator and Concom member Aquilino Pimentel Jr. expressed belief Duterte is just trying to be cautious on what comes out of his mouth nowadays but is not necessarily becoming lukewarm on federalism.

Pimentel said some of Duterte’s critics are trying to insinuate that the shift to a federal form of government will be adopted through a revolutionary government. – With Robertzon Ramirez