Federalism won’t prosper here

Every time a new administration takes over, the new President wants to extend his or her term. Isn’t six years long enough? I feel that the 1987 Constitution was well-crafted, carefully scrutinized and developed and passed through a Constitutional Commission. Let’s not mess around through a Constituent Assembly and a plebiscite which I’m sure will fail. Besides, the majority of the senators will oppose it. This exercise is just a waste of public funds and energy, and public support. The funds to be spent for federalism could be channeled for better purposes. Perhaps, President Duterte and his minions led by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez should take a leaf at their objective or risk another People Power revolution. As a former highly respected Chief Justice, Hilario Davide Jr. once said “If it ain’t broken, why fix it?.”

As it is, President Duterte has been doing a good job as SWS and Pulse Asia surveys show, unlike US President Donald Trump who always takes ‘missteps’ who, I feel is in danger of being impeached or being voted out after his four-year term at the White House. Here, former president Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada was kicked out of office for plunder.

As of this writing, President Duterte is going or has delivered his annual 3rd SONA at the Batasan Pambansa. I’m not quite sure if he will bring up the issue of federalism. I’m not sure as to how the audience will accept his plan of a federal state. I am not in favor of federalism as a majority of senators or even the voters. Maybe, the President should just dwell on his achievements like going out after criminals, drug lords and addicts, rapists, murderers and imposing a curfew on minor out on the streets after 10 pm. The President has been doing a good job at diplomacy and is already being internationally recognized. He has three years left as president to continue.

Just junk the idea of federalism and focus on what he is doing today. I’m sure the next president will find ‘Digong’ Duterte’s accomplishments a hard act to follow.

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These past couple of weeks, we experienced nasty weather in the metro area and neighboring towns and cities. The DepEd and Metro Manila mayors has to suspend classes in all levels of school because of the bad weather and flooded streets. Even as I write, many streets are still under water. Fortunately, we live on higher ground in Paranaque City in the south. But what about those living in depressed and poor areas? This has given rise to deadly diseases like leptospirosis and dengue. The different hospitals like the Kidney Center have only limited bedspace and dialysis machines to accommodate the increasing number of patients. Not to mention the rising costs.

Maybe it’s time the DepEd to reconsider the school opening from June to September as I wrote before to align it with the US. It will make us more competitive with other countries. We have already done the K-12 grade in various schools. Why not move the school opening calendar from June to September? We will have the occasional rains and typhoons but much less than we have today. It’s food for thought.