Essay # 4: "Federalism is not the proper solution to socio-political and economic problems of

the country"

During the first tranche in his campaign of the now President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, he has been vocal
about restructuring or reshaping the Philippine Constitution in a form of a federalist government. Many
politicians and political analysts have given different stance on this proposal and is quite a controversial
topic to date. Having a federal government as proposed by some framers of the Philippine Constitution,
the Philippines will be re-structured into eleven federal states, comprising four in Luzon, Four in Visayas
and Three in Mindanao. Like the United States, federalization is all about establishing a single and a
united nation-state whereas there will be an allocation of powers and resources between the central
government and the federal state.

In reality, the path to a federal government will deal with some tedious task and would require years to
overcome the ultimate autonomy of a federal state. The framework of having a federal government is
pleasing to the ears, giving us the idea that we could possibly have a better Philippines. This could
require a lengthy process in the Congress or some sort of a revision of the Philippine Constitution. Its
framework has to be designed in a way that it could tackle and meet the countrys most pressing issues,
the local constituents demands and as a whole, considering the overall conditions we are facing. In
fairness to this lengthy ambition, federalism could focus on so many strategies in addressing local to
national concerns.

But the apparent matrix of different mandates and responsibilities between the Local Government and
other government agencies will give overlaps and confusion in jurisdiction. There will be governmental
functions that will be crucially affected by this effort such as police, education, health services,
transportation etc. In the present stage of our nation, it is obviously noted that public officials pass the
blame for failures should there be blunders in governance. Proper accountability has to be put in
conjunction with the distribution of designations and should be logically stated in an amended
Constitution.

This could also lead to having expanded abuse of powers of politicians where decisions will rely mainly
on state leaders with less interference from the central government. Given the present conditions of
massive corruption and political dynasties, a federal government is not an ideal frame to solve pressing
concerns such as poor employment rate, crime rates, overpopulation, education, housing, etc. And
these issues are being collectively used as a medium for grandstanding, for political ambitions rather
than solutions. What the society needs is freedom of information to expose corruption, causing poverty
in an already poor country. The urgency to fight corruption and political dynasty is further imperative
that anything else.

The framework itself is ambitious, but we should first undermine political dynasty, corruption, injustice
and so others. And this shift doesnt come cheap and will require a huge portion of our National Budget,
a budget that could provide better services in Education, Health and Modernization. While none of so
many federalism proposals of the past administrations was put to national referendum, what we need is
an amendment of the Constitution and nothing else. I believed that what the country needs is not a
shift, but rather strengthening its core.