Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Presidential System To Federalism
Presidential System To Federalism
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THE SHIFT: PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM TO FEDERALISM
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s allies believe that the 16. 6 million votes that Duterte
received during the last presidential election was a show of support for federalism and
mandates the Constitutional Change that Duterte is pushing for. But why do we need to shift
culture and traditions, very much like the United States of America. And federalism is seen as
a suitable form of government for a multiethnic and multilinguistic, archipelagic country. The
current system of democracy is perceived to siphon local income and wealth to feed the
central government and Metro Manila, the richest country in the region. Those who claim to
support the constitutional change emphasize that federalism would enable regions to plan and
manage their own development without national government interference. The President, for
his part, has repeatedly said that only federalism will solve the problem of the Bangsa Moro
liberation fronts.
distinct identity to exercise direct control over affairs of special concern to them while
allowing the larger entity to exercise those powers that cover common interests. The best-
known form of autonomy is federalism. One of the many reasons of why the present
administration pushes for federalism is because federalism is said to solve all the major
problems seen as lingering and unsolvable that is plaguing our country for several years now.
If the constitutional change is pushed and our current form of government shifts to
federalism, it will be able to restructure the state and official policies by redistribution
through affirmative policies, recognition of personal laws and other forms of pluralism, fairer
2
THE SHIFT: PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM TO FEDERALISM
Accordingly, the restoration of free elections and formal democracy under the 1987
Constitution after the people power revolt in EDSA in 1986 did little to empower citizens to
check or mitigate our pervasive problems of mass poverty, unemployment, corruption, social
inequality, rebellion and the environment. Underdevelopment and population still force
multitude of Filipinos to migrate as our country lags farther behind our advanced neighbors in
the region.
The 1987 Constitution has many positive features that are worth preserving. But it has
not enabled us to rebuild various institutions for good governance. But the proposed
distributed, and some of them also shared between the federal government (National
Government) and the States (Regional Governments) and their local governments. This
addresses the issue of redistributing the income and wealth of the country to the different
Unlike in our traditional unitary system where the national government regard the
local government as subordinate and dependent political institutions, the federal system will
promote good governance and the common good of the people because there will be a great
deal of cooperation, mutual support and adjustments in the relations between the federal
government and the states. Federalism also addresses the principle of “popular sovereignty”
emphasized in the 1987 Constitution. While the people exercise self-rule with substantial
powers, authority and functions and the needed resources for funding, problems will also be
attended to at the lowest level in which they can be solved, by the people directly concerned,
3
THE SHIFT: PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM TO FEDERALISM
The proponents of federalism claims that when our unitary system is changed and the
Republic of Philippines is changed to a Federal Republic, it will solve many of the problems
The issue of peace and cultural diversity and the Bangsa Moro. Federalism will
accommodate the legitimate interests of the indigenous people, end war in Mindanao
The issue of good governance and the rampant corruption in public offices. Through
federalism, the division of new powers and functions between the Federal
Government and States will bring a greater part of the government and decision-
making closer to the people. With more power, authority and resources managed by
the leaders in the States and their local governments which will be more visible and
accessible to the people all over the country, the people will be more aware
importance of electing good leaders and corruption will be easier to detect and expose
and punish.
The issue of political, economic, social and cultural development. Federalism will
investments and industries, professional and skilled workers, artists, scholars and
opportunities to all, promote cultural development and slowly raise the lives of
Federalism is not proposed as a cure for all the ailments besieging our country because there
is no such thing as a cure all. Rather, it is a way of slowly and painstakingly transforming our