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MANILA -- President Rodrigo Duterte is still keeping federalism on his agenda but it is up to Congress to propose what method should be used in amending the Constitution, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) chief Adelino Sitoy bared that federalism was not discussed during the pre-Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting on Monday (August 5) night.
“Ang federalism palagi namang nasa agenda ni Presidente iyon(Federalism has always been in the President’s agenda),” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
“But as I repeatedly said, ang bola nasa Kongreso eh (the ball is in the Congress), federalism will entail an amendment to the Constitution,” he added.
Panelo further said the two chambers of Congress should first agree on a method of amending the Constitution - either by Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) or Constitutional Convention (Con-Con).
“Hindi proposed legislation ang federalism (Federalism is not a proposed legislation). That is an amendment to the Constitution, you will change the charter eh,” Panelo said.
“Kaya kailangan iyong dalawa mag-agree muna sila (So the two should first agree) how to propose amendments to the Constitution by calling itself as a Constituent Assembly,” he added.
Panelo, however, admitted that if Congress would fail to agree on amending the Constitution, there is also the option of changing the government code.
“There have been some issues raised relative to the installation of a federal form of government. Some quarters are saying that we don’t even have to do that, because the Local Government Code would suffice, there’s only a need for certain refinements and amendment to the same,” Panelo said.
“I suppose members of Congress would be looking at that angle. If they cannot agree on amending the Constitution, then they can—that’s a fall back, they look at the government code and see what is need to be done,” he added.
Earlier, Panelo rejected claims that Duterte had abandoned his push for a shift to a federal system of government since he did not mention it in his fourth state of the nation address (SONA) on July 22.
“Sinabi niya bang ano, suko na siya? Hindi. (Did he say he was giving up? He didn’t),” Panelo said.
“Ang sinabi niya mukhang hindi na makukuha sa kaniyang term (What he said is that he is aware that it may not be realized during his term),” he added.
1 Mga Komento
Federalism is not a panacea for all the political financial and corruption woes that beset the Philippines. To divide the tiny Philippines into smaller states will only entrench political dynasties control over their turf complicate the legal processes as they may differ from state to state. weaken budgetary controls, duplicate offices and legislatures in all separate states, promote regionalism attending to their parochial interests, increase the number of corrupt government officials in government when Philippines needs less of these parasites.
TumugonBurahinFederalism did not lessen corruption in Australia and USA. In NSW they had to set up an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to fight corrupt government officials and they have a law protecting whistleblowers protected disclosures.
What s more economical is devolution similar to the muslim's Bangsa Moro autonomous region in mindanao, amalgamate small City Councils local government areas (LGA) to make them more financially viable. Remove the land tax and replace it with rates that each LGU will charge based on the costs of providing services to their LGA and accountable to the residents in that area.
It would help if COA will conduct more pre audit of major transactions instead of historical post audit when funds have already been squandered.
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