FEDERALISM ― what say you?

FEDERALISM ― what say you?

The shifting of the Philippines’ form of government, from unitary to federal, is one the most controversial debate issues today. During President Duterte’s electoral campaign, he kept on telling before the crowd his plan of moving the government form to federalism once he is seated as the president of the country. At first, Filipinos are very unconvinced of his plan for the Philippines, but since then more and more Filipinos are now accepting his proposal.

Although, there are few others who remained skeptical about this, you cannot keep them off of the scene, giving protest not supporting this idea. That is why we must take a deeper look and an in-depth understanding of this proposed new form of government for the country – federalism.

What is federalism? According to CliffNotes website;

Federalism is a type of government in which the power is divided between the national government and other governmental units. It contrasts with a unitary government, in which a central authority holds the power, and a confederation, in which states, for example, are clearly dominant.

Federalism is contrast to the unitary form of government which the Philippines has presently. In the unitary form of government, the power and authority is mostly vested in one centralized government. Meaning to say; laws, military matters, including funds and what-on are all made and ran through the effort of one centralized government.

On the other hand, in Federal form, the government will be divided into two governing bodies; National Federal Government and the Local State Government in which both hold equal legislative power. The National Federal Government is responsible for matters concerning military and security of the nation, whereas the Local State Government is accountable for their own states. They are also in-control of the projects, budget, and laws of the states.

If the Federal form of government is adapted here in the Philippines, the country will be divided into 11 different sates; four sates in Luzon and Visayas, and 3 states in Mindanao according to the Federal Structure proposed by Senator Nene Pimentel.

In this form of government, as per what the Duterte administration is saying, the country’s economic struggle would be addressed because the regional income of the country would no longer go on the hands of one centralized government. Instead, each region/state, in a Federal Form, would retain 80% of their income and funds and only 20% would go to the National Federal Government. This will give each state enough resources to fund project that would promote progress within their respective states. And from the total 80% remaining income of the state, 30% from there would go to the Local State Government and 70% would go to the provinces, cities, and barangays.

There are 7, 107 islands in the Philippines, this means each island has diverse culture and specific needs. Thus the Federal form of the government is tailor-fitted to the Philippines, since it promotes progress for every states by giving them freedom what law to enact, what specific project is needed, and so on.  Cultural dispute is also one thing I can see that through this new form of government it could come to recess.