Name: Christopher M.

Cubit Course/Year: BAPOS-1b Score: /20

Activity 10
Are you in favor to shift the present form of government from presidentialism to federalism?

Yes, I believe we need to decentralize economic and political power in government because we
are focusing too much attention on the Metro Manila, where the majority of projects and
developments are taking place, while the provinces lag behind. If the provinces could just use
their own resources and power to develop their economies, we would not need informal settlers
anymore, where people thought that life in metro Manila was easier; they had better job
opportunities and a higher salary, but in reality nothing progressed at all, and this led to an
endless cycle where people left their own provinces because they saw no progress in their
community. If we decentralize power and many provinces within the Philippines are poised to
become global cities, people will no longer leave their provinces because opportunities are
distributed.

And, I believe that federalism suits our country because Filipinos are very regionalistic; they have
different religions, beliefs, cultures, customs, traditions, and ways of living. In a federal state,
each region can legislate its own legislation according to its own customs, traditions, and ways of
living.

But I think before we adopt federalism, we would need to see our current situation where political
dynasties still exist, where popular families can dominate and abuse their power.

We would need to stop that.

And, we would need to remove the 60/40 restriction in our constitution and open our economy to
Foreign Direct Investor to generate more jobs and collect more tax revenues and served as the
fund of for building a federal state.