Alvarez, Lagman, cross swords on federalism

The public should trust President Rodrigo Duterte and Congress to do the right thing in shifting to a federal form of government through a constituent assembly, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has said.

Alvarez made this point in a televised debate with Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who has opposed the shift to federalism and the administration’s proposed mode of Con-ass.

“I have faith in my colleagues in the House and senators who were elected by the people. I also trust the President who got a huge mandate from the people,” Alvarez said.

But Lagman said that Alvarez should trust the delegates to be elected in a constitutional convention instead, which he believed was more appropriate to handle a wholesale change in the charter than a Con-ass.

Alvarez said it was time to ride on a “new vehicle” rather than stay on the old and beat-up model which continued to be broke despite constant repairs.

Charting one’s destiny

He said a decentralization of powers in a federal system would allow each state to control their economy, natural resources and chart their own destiny.

Lagman for his part said he was wary of Alvarez treating federalism as a sort of panacea to corruption, drugs, and poverty.

Federalized countries like the United States, Brazil, Russia and Mexico have the same problems as the Philippines and that he believed changing a government system was not the solution, Lagman said.

Alvarez said that under his proposal, poor provinces like Samar and Leyte could join with more prosperous neighbors such as Cebu and Bohol to have a more balanced state.

Another example was merging Caraga region—Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur—with Davao. Under his proposal, a state would retain 80 percent of its resources and income and remit only 20 percent to the central government.

Lagman, however, said that such a proposal was doomed to fail because the poor provinces would tend to pull down the richer members of their state.

“That is counter-productive. The Philippines has only three regions that could be considered as self-sufficient,” said Lagman, naming then as Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Luzon based on their gross domestic product.

Not self-sufficient

“All the rest are not self-sufficient, they will just depend on the central government. If the central government abandons them to their own resources then these regions will remain underdeveloped,” he said.

Lagman said it was easy to peg the percentage of income to be retained per state, but no study has shown whether that amount would be enough for a region to survive on its own feet.

Alvarez said studies would be made in the course of the deliberations, while President Duterte is also advised to appoint members in constitutional commission to advice Congress.

But Lagman said former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo previously formed a commission to study charter change and nobody listened, and stressed that there remained no assurance that recommendations from such a commission would carry any weight in the debates.