A hard look at the proposed federal system

Manny Valdehuesa

FIRST of all, the proposed adoption of a federal system is a radical idea, a radical departure from the unitary system that has kept our society together since our nation’s founding.

It therefore requires the widest and most serious consideration and deliberation.

Sound bites and pompous claims of popular support are not proper—let alone adequate—presentations of the proposal. Assurances of traditional politicians (trapos) are not competent proof of its desirability or validity.

With the way it is promoted, so casual and cavalier, it is not worth serious consideration. Much of it is based on wishful thinking—the wishes of traditional politicos who dream of slicing up the Philippine Republic into dominions they and their dynasties can control and manipulate as milking cows.

There are no serious discussion materials available on it. Railroading people into supporting the proposal seems to be more important than informing them about what it really is.

Information on such a momentous topic should be available in every community, in every barangay hall.

There has been little or no mention of the fact that the essence of federalism is autonomy or self-government; that a federal system starts with the people and their community—and that they must have the requisite experience of autonomous government.

And no one bothers to point out that Filipinos have no hands-on experience of autonomy, individually or collectively. It’s their presumptuous officials who have been doing all the governing since time immemorial!

If the trapos had only taken the trouble to implement the provisions and intents of the Local Government Code since it was enacted in 1991, Filipinos by now would be versed in the ways of autonomy and parliamentary government.

But instead of inviting the people into the arena of autonomous governance, the trapos kept them out instead. They monopolized governance and treated government power as a possession and heirloom to be handed down to their dynastic successors.

Thus to this day, the people still do not, cannot, their role as sovereign citizens. Everything they do is virtually forced: to pay their share of taxes, to support the government, and to do whatever the bureaucrats tell them to do. They do not shape their government’s policies, not even in the intimate framework of their own community, the barangay. They do not define its regulations. Although they are coerced into implementing and complying with them.

In other words, the spirit and processes of autonomy do not operate at in the basic communities, the foundational level of society and government. Such communities are the bulwark of democracy and people power. But they are emasculated by the trapos.

Any attempt to introduce radical change in our society or government must be founded on an awareness of its nature and dynamics at this level.

To be effective, and to avoid disruption, the proposed change should be preceded by knowledge of what it will entail. It must clearly define what changes will take place and how the new system will operate.

Now, have the proposed changes been defined and adequately explained in every community? How many barangay assemblies have been held to explain this proposal? None it seems.

It seems discussions on the topic are held in places accessible to only a few with special invitations. There are only a handful of materials or information on the topic.

Without adequate knowledge and information, how can anyone claim that this proposal is anchored on support of the people? Or that it is backed by their sovereign authority?

(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, Development Academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN; vice chair, Local Government Academy; and PPI-Unicef outstanding columnist awardee. He is chairman/convenor of the Gising Barangay Movement Inc. valdehuesa@gmail.com)