Federalism answer to years-old yearning for economic progress

By Luis Leoncio 

The push for a shift to a federal system of government “is more of an economic than a political necessity,” according to former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., a strong advocate of the move supported by President Duterte, which has gained traction in Congress.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives had indicated that the proposal to shift to a federal system of government through amendments in the Constitution would be a priority agenda.

Federalism, which is expected to usher in a more equitable distribution of powers in the country’s regions, is the answer to the years-old yearning for national progress in the Philippines, Pimentel said before the Forum on Federalism sponsored by the Development Academy of the Philippines’s (DAP) Council of Fellows at the Virata Hall of DAP in Pasig City.

Pimentel and former Chief Justice Reynato Puno were the keynote speakers of the forum that also served as an occasion for the conferment of their membership to the DAP Council of Fellows.

Pimentel said government powers have been so concentrated in the central government in Metro Manila that the regional or local governments have been paralyzed into being so dependent on the central government even in matters affecting them directly.

Under Pimentel’s proposal for a federal system, the country shall be divided into 11 federal states.

These are to be created out of the administrative regions already existing. They will include four federal states in Luzon—the Federal States of Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, and Bicol; four in the Visayas—the Federal States of Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, and Minparom composed of Mindoro, Palawan, Romblon and Marinduque; and three in Mindanao—the Federal States of Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, and Bangsamoro, which could be further subdivided into Mainland Muslims composed of Maranaws, Maguindanaos and subtribes, and Off-Shore Island Muslims or those in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Metro Manila, meanwhile, will be converted into a Federal Administrative Region covering 16 cities and one municipality similar to Washington D.C. in the United States, New Delhi in India or Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, all of which are using the federal system of government.

In a speech before the Management Association of the Philippines, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez stated the same structure of the proposed federal state.

He said that under the proposed composition of federal states, impoverished provinces would become part of states that are economically resilient.

Pimentel said that the secessionist movements of various Moro groups that have existed since the Spanish era could finally be solved not by force but by federalizing the country and converting the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao into a Bangsamoro Federal State.

He said the “imbalance” in the distribution of resources among local government unitww s has not only fuelled the armed rebellion in Mindanao against the government but has also hampered the speedy development of the local communities and of the people residing in those communities.

“Government powers are so concentrated in the central government in Metro Manila that even during Typhoon Yolanda that hit Leyte and Eastern Visayas, it was (then) Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soli

man who took charge of the distribution of relief goods from the central government,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel, who is now into public-sector leadership advocacy through the Pimentel Institute of Leadership and Governance, is widely recognized as the father of the Local Government Code of 1991, which has tried to devolve certain powers of the central government and the functions of three departments – agriculture, health, and social welfare and development – to the local government units.

“The greatly centralized, unitary feature of the government persists, however,” Pimentel said. “Despite the passage of the Local Government Code, the system of government of the country is still highly centralized and unitary as opposed to the federal system.”

The situation, therefore, calls for the adoption of a “concrete, doable, practical plan,” Pimentel said, to speed up the development of the country and its people and dissipate the causes of unrest by installing a federal system of government with a presidential form.

Such a new system would require amending the present Constitution.

Despite such an amendment, however, Pimentel said certain features of the present government would remain, including the existence of only one Constitution, one armed forces, one flag, one central bank, one monetary system, one foreign policy, and one public education system.

Pimentel suggests, however, that the manner of settling disputes be determined by the litigants involved. If the disputing parties are both Muslims, then the Shariah law should apply. If the dispute involves a Muslim and a non-Muslim, then the national law should apply.

The former lawmaker prefers retaining a presidential form of government under a federal system where a president and vice president will be elected nationwide but in tandem for a term of six years without re-election. Both officials, however, will now be required to be college degree holders.

A bicameral Congress that will enact laws for the federal republic shall also be elected, with the Senate members being elected nationwide and the representatives being elected by district.

A significant increase in the number of senators who will be elected by their respective federal states, however, will take place, with six senators for each of the 11 federal states being elected, another six for Metro Manila and nine for overseas Filipinos for a total of 72.

Pimentel justified the increase by citing the significant rise in the country’s population from 20 million at the time 24 senatorial slots were mandated to the present when the population has soared to 104 million. He said an increase in the members of the House may be justified similarly.

He added other countries whose population is not even as big as that of the Philippines but have, in fact, significantly more senators on a per-head basis than the number being proposed for the country under a federalized system.

These include the United Kingdom whose 60.9 million population is served by 618 senators, France (64 million, 331 senators), Italy (52 million, 315 senators), Spain (40 million, 264 senators), Egypt (81.7 million, 264 senators), Thailand (65.4 million, 150 senators), Ethiopia (78 million, 108 senators), Australia (20.6 million, 76 senators), Malaysia (25 million, 70 senators), and Ireland (4.1 million, 60 senators).

Despite such arrangement, each province, city and municipality will still have its own governor, mayor and local officials under the existing setup, on top of the governor and vice governor for each federal state.

Every state will also have a unicameral state legislature that will enact laws for the governance of the state and where three state legislators will represent every province and city and three sectoral representatives will represent farmers, fishermen and senior citizens in every province and city.

Despite the increase in number of senators and members of the House, revenue shares for the federal states and LGUs will increase, and the allocation of revenues will use all revenues – not only taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue – as basis, with the federal state getting 80 percent of the shares and the federal or national government 20 percent.

Some 70 percent of the federal states’ share will go, on the other hand, to the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays while 30 percent will go to the federal state government.

Under this formula, Pimentel said the shares of the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays will be bigger than what is currently provided for under the local government code.

To address the reality that not all the federal states would be on equal footing in terms of resources and opportunities, an equalization fund administered by the federal government to assist states in dire need of development funds should be created, he said.

He added the federal states should be represented in the authority administering the said equalization fund.

Among those who attended the DAP forum, besides Pimentel and Puno, were Senate Presidentr Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, former Sen. Orlando Mercado, Fr. Edicio de la Torre, former Budget Secretary Salvador Enriquez, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan, former DSWD Secretary Corazon Alma de Leon, Civil Service Commission Chair Alicia de la Rosa-Bala, Party-list Rep. Ron Salo, Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Bernardo Sayo, and Professor Prospero de Vera, University of the Philippines vice president for public affairs.