FEDERALISM: THE CHANGE WE NEED
The concept of Federalism has lately been receiving special attention in Philippine political
circles. Federalism is a proposed type of government wherein authority is constitutionally divided
between the national government and sub-divisional governments (such as states or provinces).
Federalism divides the country into several autonomous states with a national government. President
Rodrigo R. Duterte has been a fervent advocate of changing the unitary form of government that we
have to what he believes will give peace to Mindanao and our country -- federalism. Long before, the
concept of federalism was advocated, and it was first presented by Jose Rizal in his essay “Las Filipinas
Dentro de Cien Anos (The Philippines a Century Hence)” published in La Solidaridad in 1889 to 1990, in
which he stated there that the Philippines should be a federal republic. Pablo Trillana III, a Historian, and
professor of law said that when Rizal passed away, Emilio Aguinaldo pursued the federalist idea. As
Americans colonized our country, they rejected this kind of platform since they know it would be tough
for them to control the islands. As a result, they established the unitary form of government profited
only the center and soon it became the pattern for controlling regions outside the capital.
These revelations are grounded in fact and history. The too-centralized unitary form of
government we now have favored the oligarchic elites as it prolongs poverty and hardship in the
regions.
This paper promotes that the Philippines is ready to shift to a new form of government—
federalism.
Let me show you my points.
Firstly, with strong leadership and determination of our President Rodrigo R. Duterte, I believe that he
can guide our country to greater heights. Even before President Duterte became a president, he was a
strong advocate of changing the system of our government to a federal platform. For the past several
years, we are using the unitary form of government in which this system was unsuccessful in developing
the whole country economically. According to an article by CNN Philippines, the government's
outstanding debt reached ₱7.3 trillion last year (2018), growing by 9.6 percent from ₱6.7 trillion in 2017
amid higher domestic and foreign borrowings. This only shows that our economic state keeps on
subsiding with all these debts that will eventually get bigger as years passed by if we would not adapt to
a federal form of government. The increasing debts of our country would not be able to decrease or
lessen if the system remains the same, repeating the same patterns or ways, and not even thinking of
changing it. So, it is a great chance for us, Filipinos, to have a President who offers the change we need
for and that there is someone who sees that the system we have must change for the Philippines to
have ways to solve its long-term problems.
With the present system of government, a lot of provinces (Sorsogon, Zamboanga Sibugay,
Negros Oriental, Leyte, Western Samar, etc.) were left behind in terms of economic development.
Therefore, the shift of system of government from unitary to a federal system should be implemented
or adapted as soon as possible in order to have these provinces a chance to improve and cope up with
the development in terms of their economic state. I believe, shifting to federalism would open these
provinces opportunities to elevate their way of living through addressing their own problems based on
their own geographical, cultural, social, economic conditions and will eventually give its people better
life and will contribute to the improvement of this country. Since, in the proposed system, it is stated
that each region can retain most of their revenue income collection and use them on programs and
policies according to their needs and create enough opportunities for upward socio-economic mobility.
In which, the desired development of the people for their respective region is feasible.
Lastly, if we would not be ready to adapt to federalism, then, the big question to that is, when
will the Philippines be ready? If we wait for more years, to let the people be ready, I believe that our
country would not be able to attain the development it needs, instead, we would sink from the debts we
owe and we would keep on owing debts to World Bank because of lack of fund due to some corrupt and
monopolizing government officials. If we would keep on giving too much control to the central
government, I believe our country would not be able to step up and we will be trapped to its selfish
ways again and again. There were countries which have been progressive because of the shift to a
federal form of government and these are Austria, Germany, Canada, United States, Australia. According
to a report by USA TODAY( November 2018), the mentioned countries were included in the Top 25 rich
nations around the world where Austria ranked 14, Germany ranked 17, Canada ranked 21, the United
States ranked 11, and Australia ranked 20. With these given facts, I am certain that if the Philippines
would shift to a federal form of government, we would be like these countries—economically stable.
As of now, according to a survey done by Pulse Asia (June 2018) A majority, 69%, said they
know little or nothing about the proposed federal system of government. But this percentage can be
lowered if the government and private sectors would help disseminate information about the proposed
federal form of government. In this case, more people would understand and be convinced that the
federal form of government is the best system to be implemented in our country.
Another problem that hinders the implementation of federalism in the country is that only a few
regions are capable of raising enough taxes on their own. But, according to a report done by DILG about
the proposed federal form of government, there will be Equalization Fund in which this will provide
more funding support for regions in need to accelerate their development and progress. With this, no
region would be left undeveloped and remain poor. In addition, the development of a certain region
would be more successful if its people will strive hard to reach their desired development for their
region.
With these robust pieces of evidence, I strongly support that this is the right time for us to
implement a federal form of government. In line with this, I firmly believe that the best solution that we
must have is to adapt to the federal form of government, with this, our country's problems would be
eradicated especially in terms of economic aspect.
I will leave you a quotation by Elizabeth Prince Foley:
“Federalism is not about states’ rights. It is about dividing power to better protect individual
liberty.
