Federalism campaign going to provinces dispel public fears — DILG

After a recent survey revealed that majority of Filipinos do not support the proposal to shift into a federal type of government, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will launch a nationwide campaign to allay the fears of the public on charter change.

DILG Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya called the interpretation of the results of the Pulse Asia survey released last week “wrong,” insisting that majority of the respondents of the survey were actually for federalism.

According to the survey conducted from March 23 to 28 this year, 66 percent of Filipinos opposed replacing the present unitary system of government with a federal one.

Out of the 66 percent, 36 percent are against changing to a federal government system, regardless of the timing. Then, 30 percent say the government system should not be changed now but may be open about it in the future. The remaining 6 percent were undecided.

The same Pulse Asia survey showed that seven out of 10 Filipinos have little or no knowledge about federalism.

At the sidelines of a federalism forum with international experts in Makati City on Friday, Malaya said 57 percent were in favor of the shift to federalism — including the 30 percent who were not in favor now.

“The challenge for the DILG is to persuade those 30 percent that right now is the perfect time to push for federalism. No other administration has put federalism as its front and center agenda as President [Rodrigo] Duterte,” he told reporters.

Malaya said a nationwide roadshow will be conducted by the DILG and Consulative Committe (ConCom) reviewing the 1987 Constitution starting in the second week of June to inform the public about the merits of changing into a federal government.

ConCom member Julio Teehankee clarified that federalism was about decentralizing the power from the national government, and “not about consolidating powers into the hands of a single person.”

Teehanke noted some prerequisites that the ConCom raised before discussing the other issues about federalism, including the prohibition on political dynasties and political turncoats; reforming the party-list system, and reforming campaign financing to allow ordinary citizens to contribute to their candidates through tax credits.

According to Malaya, during the nationwide campaign, the government will consult the public so that “no one could say that the decision-making were dictated by Imperial Manila alone.”

The campaign will also train individuals who want to become “federalism advocates” for their communities.

Malaya said the priority areas for the campaign will be in the regions of Cordilleras and Bicol in Luzon, Negros in Visayas, and Caraga in Mindanao.

He said the nationwide campaign shows that “we are serious about shifting to federal system.”

“Critics urge us to abandon federalism and instead focus on governance, poverty, corruption and delivering basic services. We are basically federalizing because we want to be able to address these issues,” Malaya said. /vvp