President Rodrigo Duterte will lead the opening salvo of the information campaign on federalism and the draft Constitution crafted by the 22-member Consultative Committee (Con-com).
Con-com Spokesperson Ding Generoso said that Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea made the announcement himself in a brief message to Con-com members at the Philippine International Convention Center.
“Last Wednesday (Con-com) Chairman (Reynato) Puno and (former) Senate president (Aquilino) Pimentel and I had a meeting with the President. We informed him about the information drive which we are going to do once our task here ends. The President has expressed himself that he will be personally present at the opening salvo of the information drive,” Medialdea said in his speech, the transcript of which was shared to the media on Sunday.
Malacañang earlier announced the creation of a government task force that will spearhead the public information drive on federalism, which will reportedly have an initial funding of P90 million.
During the final en banc session of the committee, Puno said that “crafting a Draft Federal Constitution is a burden, but the bigger burden is overcoming the opposition.”
“Our Draft Constitution is a disruptive document as it will unsettle the status quo and disquiet those who cannot tolerate change however molecular the change may be. The status quo is the over concentration of powers in our national government, the status quo that has been cemented by the centuries of time, and now considered by some as inviolable as the ark of the covenant,” he said.
He also asked Con-com members to “scatter the seeds of federalism to our people, because in truth, federalism is for the benefit of our people.”
“It is our job to end the suspension of the belief on federalism whose end all be all is the people’s welfare. More specifically, we should tell the people that federalism will end the culture of undue dependence on the central government,” he added. /ee