Everybody
thought this was already a complete goner under the last part of the term of
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Some
allies of the President in the House of Representatives are making the last
push for this to become a reality a major shift in the way government
administration from its current Manila centric style of governance.
Cagayan
de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez,who is the chair of the committee on constitutional
amendments is
pushing for the shift to federal form of government that was proposed by the retired
chief justice Reynato Puno led consultative committee
ans was earlier approved by Duterte and
the previous Congress.
 |
| Retired chief justice
Reynato Puno led the consultative committee regarding the shift of federal form of government (photo credit to owner) |
Rodriguez
included in his report on the proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution the
shift to a federal form of government, which was already approved by the House
plenary during the 17th Congress in 2018.
Rodriguez
revealed that the committee report adopted with modification the proposal in
the draft constitution of the Puno commission.
The
move was most welcome despite earlier pronouncements that the panel would no
longer pursue such a move and that Duterte is no longer pursuing his initial
promise to shift the current form of government to that of federal form.
“We
have considered the Puno draft in the committee deliberations and we will also
consider it in the plenary debates in relation to the four sets of proposed
amendments,” Rodriguez said.
He said the panel report is proposing the creation of federated
regions and election of senators per region.
“The election of senators
by region is a feature of federalism: the rule of subsidiarity. We adopted the
proposal of the Puno draft to have federated regions. While it proposed 16
regions, our committee decided to have only nine regions,” he bared.
As per records, the House had approved on third and final
reading last December 2018 the resolution that seeks to shift the Philippines
to a federal system of government after a 224-22-3 vote that met the required
three-fourths vote.
The House under then House
speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo swiftly approved the draft constitution of the
Puno commission, with only a few changes.
The draft constitution,
which was reportedly approved by the President in July 2018, sought to create
18 federated regions, including federated regions of the Bangsamoro and
Cordillera.
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