What a Manila forum says about Federalism

What is the Cebu City Council doing to honor the campaign promise of President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte that he will usher charter change in this country and selling the idea of shifting our present unitary system of governance into a federal form of government? Malacañang already vowed to exert more effort in educating and informing Filipinos about the proposal.

As Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said: "We will therefore exert even more effort to inform and educate our citizens about federalism since the approval of the proposed changes in our current Charter ultimately lies in the hands of the Filipino people." This is happening due to the latest Pulse Asia survey that showed that 67 percent of Filipinos do not want to amend the 1987 Constitution at this time. Only 18 percent of the respondents favor charter change. This is due to the fact that the Aquino political family does not want to change the 1987 Constitution which is named after Cory Aquino even if Federalism is a better system for our nation.

Last July 17, I was invited to the Pandesal Forum in Manila. I could not attend it but they sent me their comments on charter change. So I use the rest of this column for this official statement coming from Manila entitled “Experts say Charter Change can end political dynasties, boost economic growth.”

“Experts said at the non-partisan Pandesal Forum in Quezon City that the proposed charter change of the 1987 Constitution can help end the Philippines’ notorious, age-old tradition of political dynasties dominating local government units (LGUs) nationwide; it shall boost ‘more inclusive economic growth’ by decentralizing government funds and encourage more business investments outside the National Capital Region (NCR) of Metro Manila. It is envisioned to craft ‘one of the world’s most modern and truly democratic constitutions in the world.’”

These were among the various ideas expressed by top politics analysts, Institute for Political & Electoral Reforms Executive Director Ramon Casiple, and the youngest delegate to the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution, Georgetown University and University of the Philippines Law School-educated Atty. Martin Loon.

Casiple said that for decades, Philippine politics has been “dominated by oligarchic, elite families” and this proposed charter change plans to specify provisions to ban political clans from monopolizing electoral politics. Other political reforms include proposals to promote party politics instead of the current system of personality-driven politics. Casiple also said that the proposed federal system to replace the present unitary system shall help decentralize economic development resources, funds, and activities into various rural regions of the Philippines, to promote genuine economic democracy.

Loon appealed to political leaders “not to politicize the discussions on charter change, because it is for the benefit of all Filipinos and not to favor any political group or faction.” He added that in the past different administrations, the Philippines had been changing presidents and political leaders, but the socio-economic woes of the country have essentially been the same, therefore the problems are “more systemic in nature.”

Loon said the proposed charter change draft by the Consultative Committee shall be finalized by legislators in consultations with the citizenry and multi-sectoral groups, that it shall ultimately be decided upon by the people in “the ultimate survey which is a plebiscite”. Loon said charter change shall benefit people not only via political empowerment and modernizing our political system, it can also strengthen economic development to create more new jobs. Loon said the Consultative Committee shall go speak to various public fora with multi-sectoral groups to explain their draft constitution.

Casiple and Loon both said the Consultative Committee’s draft constitution is still “a work in progress” that can soon be finalized in time for a possible plebiscite to coincide with the 2019 national elections. Both experts said that there are many versions of the progressive federal system of government worldwide, that some of the world’s most economically vibrant and politically stable countries have a federal system, such as the United States of America Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Austria, Malaysia, Brazil, and many others.

The Pandesal Forum is a non-partisan, tertulia-inspired forum of the 79-year-old Kamunjing Bakery Café in Quezon City which encourages high-level dialogue between leaders and newsmakers with media and intellectuals. The moderator is Wilson Lee Flores.

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