Some sectors of the society was happy when President Rodrigo Roa
Duterte delivered his 4th State
of the Nation (SONA) there was no mention of Federalism of charter change.
That assumption is far from the truth, in a press briefing a day
after the delivery of the 4th SONA, Department of the Interior and Local
Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said the DILG, the lead agency of the
Interagency Task Force on Federalism (IATF), assured the public federalist
shift remains a "solution" for the country to progress.
According to DILG Sec. Año, the President still considers
Federalism a priority even as the planned shift from the unitary to federal
form of government was not mentioned in his SONA.
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| Department
of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año (photo credit to owner) |
"Though the President did not mention it yesterday, in one of
his (Duterte) talks in Mindanao, he mentioned he is still for federalism.
Ultimately, this is the solution for our country," he told reporters
"The question is when are we ready? So, we will continue this
because we have an Inter-Agency Task Force for Federalism and Constitutional
Reforms," he added.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles also assured the public that
funds allocated for the administration's federalism campaign will not be spent
to futile undertakings as he remains hopeful that federalism still have a
chance under the 18th Congress.
"I think it will also be one of the topics to be discussed in
the committee on Constitutional amendments both in the House of Representatives
including in the Senate," Nograles said.
"I will not be surprised if, under the leadership of (House)
Speaker (Alan Peter) Cayetano, it will push through in the House of
Representatives and hopefully at the Senate,” he added.
But the DILG Secretary is honest to admit that if the chance of
federalism is dim in the 18th congress, the government will just shift focus on
changing certain provisions in the 1987 Constitution instead.
"If the federalism will not prosper, then at least [we do]
constitutional reforms. We all know that our Constitution has a lot of lapses,
we have to accept that many of our problems are also because of these lapses in
the Constitution," he said.
"We should open our eyes that there are things that needed to
be amended," Año added.
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Report from PNA
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