The federal state of California

I found out that the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte was to be presented at 4 p.m., this means, we have very little time to dissect it and present our views about what the President has said in his two years in office. I’m sure that all these achievements of the President would be highlighted in this supposedly 35-minute speech. So instead of waiting for the President to do his SONA, allow me to talk about the up and coming draft constitution that the Consultative Committee (Concom) had done and presented to the President.

A few weeks ago, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte formally received a copy of the draft constitution from the (Concom) that proposes to shift the Philippines from its present unitary form of governance into a federal state. To turn the Philippines into a federal state is a campaign promise of Pres. Duterte, and he proposes to quit from power the moment a federal system is installed in the country.

But this is not an easy task simply because the Aquino political family do not want this change in our present system of governance. Just look at the names of the pro-Aquino loyalists like former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. and former Comelec chief Christian and Solita Monsod who have been telling ignorant Filipinos that a federal form of government is anti-poor.

But last week the Social Weather Station (SWS) came up with a telling survey that few Filipinos know about the plans for this shift toward a federal form of government. SWS said that a survey showed that only 37 percent of Filipinos support the shift to a federal system, while only one out of four Filipinos are even aware of federalism. But as I said before, if SWS was honest enough to ask those respondents whether they have read or knew the 1935 or the 1987 Philippine constitutions, I’m sure that the numbers would be the same that indeed, few Filipinos know or understand the Philippine Constitution.

Thus, anti-federalists immediately used federal countries like Venezuela, Iraq or Pakistan as their best example of how the Philippines would fail if we made this shift toward a federal form of government. They obviously didn’t mention that countries like Germany, the United States, Switzerland, Canada, Malaysia or Australia are federal states. If you asked Filipinos if they wished to visit which country, the number one on their list is the United States, which is a federal country.

Few people know how powerful a federal state can be. So allow me to cite the federal state of California, which does not produce cars, but their automotive laws have become a worldwide phenomenon. In the late ’60s California began to insist on selling cars with certain safety features like side reflectors and insisted that no car should be sold in California unless they sport the reflectors that California mandated. This was followed in the ’70s with the 10 miles per hour bumpers and headrest on all cars.

Then they pushed for the airbags for the use of cars, but the automotive giants protested that this was too expensive, so it was given a 10-year reprieve. But after 10 years no cars can be sold in California unless they have airbags, which eventually developed into dual airbags and side airbags. Again let me point out that California doesn’t make cars. It is the State of Michigan that makes them.

Yet, car makers from all over the world followed the lead of California, so Mercedes Benz, BMW, all the French cars and all Japanese cars followed suit. So in the case of the airbag, which the automotive giants complained about as too expensive. We saw prices of airbags dropped as every car manufacturer used them for safety reasons. The fact in the automotive world is real… new cars today are without any doubt so much safer than the cars made 20 years ago, and you have to give credit where credit is due… to the State of California that started all these.

I understand that the Rotary Club of Manila plans to come up with a debate on the pros and cons of federalism. I just hope that debates like this would be covered by the media who should present the reality that our unitary form of governance has created only political dynasties who want to preserve their lucrative way of life.

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Last week, while Manila was having superstar Celine Dion, Cebu City enjoyed over the weekend Miss Saigon School Edition, sanctioned by the Miss Saigon organization. They had so many talented students playing this great Broadway show and no one was over 19 years old. The son of my daughter’s classmate, Atty. Jill Alcibar played engineer, getting a great applause from the audience. With Miss Saigon held in Cebu, we expect more Broadway plays to be done in Cebu pretty soon.

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