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SHIFTING to a federal form of government would not only dissipate the causes of Moro unrest but would also speed up growth and development of the country, said former senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. last week.

Pimentel joined presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella in a press briefing in Malacañang to discuss the key features of their proposal to adopt federalism as a system of government.

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“Let me go straight to the point. Our proposal for the adoption of a federal system is designed to disperse power, mainly from the central government to the various federal states and therefore also to the local governments composing the federal state,” Pimentel said.

The former senator said his proposal is to create a total of 12 federal states in the country — five in Luzon, four in Visayas, and three in Mindanao.

The Luzon federal states, as enumerated by Pimentel, include Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Cordilleras, Bicol, and Southern Tagalog.

The Visayas federal states would include eastern Visayas, central Visayas, western Visayas, and the provinces of Mindoro, Marinduque, Palawan and Romblon.

In Mindanao, it will be northern Mindanao, southern Mindanao, and the Bangsamoro region.

“Very important ’yung Bangsamoro because primarily the federalization of the country will dissipate the causes of Muslim unrest and speed up the development of the country,” Pimentel said.

According to the former senator, Metro Manila would be the capital state, similar to Washington DC, in the US.

Under the proposed federal system, Pimentel said the President and the Vice President would still be elected nationally, but senators would be elected by the federal states that they would represent.

Pimentel pointed out that each federal state would have six representatives in the Senate. He said the primary goal is to guarantee that all Filipinos would be represented fully in Congress.

He said the “guiding principle” on all efforts to revise the Constitution would be the President himself.

Pimentel also stressed that President Duterte should not resign from his post in case a federal system is adopted within his term so that the policy gets implemented properly.

“It will take a man who believes in it para maisulong. Otherwise, kung sino-sino lang diyan ang mag-implement, baka wala sa puso nila,” Pimentel said.

“Whether we shift to a federal system or not, we depend to a large extent on the present leadership of President Digong to push forward this kind of an idea,” he added. (pnd)

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