Empower the people first!

Manny Valdehuesa

BEFORE Congress succeeds in railroading the shift to federalism, its presumptuous proponents should be asked to produce whatever empirical evidence they have of its desirability, acceptability, and viability.

No credible studies and surveys have been undertaken or made generally available. The citizenry is simply being manipulated into adopting a momentous proposal, a still-to-be-proven idea that it is an urgent step to take. Says who? How many Filipinos have expressed the desire for such a radical change?

It’s important to raise questions because it’s not clear how it will really society at large. About the only thing we can be sure of is that the trapos forcing the shift to federalism will be the ones who will benefit greatly from it.

Under a federal system, the same trapos who monopolize politics today will be the oligarchs and dynasties of the federal states of tomorrow! The shift is a way to ensure that they will remain in power indefinitely.

Any systemic change takes time to take hold. It requires a period of adjustment. Everyone has to get familiarized and adjust to the new order. And who do you think will run things while people try to get adjusted?

The adjustment period is what the trapos call the “transition period” during which they will suspend elections or do away with it altogether. A sinister gambit to change the whole system and load the dice in their favor.

Note that they’re not even bothering to launch a credible information campaign, keeping their motives to themselves. They don’t care whether people have a clear understanding of what federalism means. They just want the people to take their word for it.

Knowledge of what faces the people—and their empowerment—are essential for any democratic system to succeed. If the trapos insist on their proposal, federalism will merely marginalize the people further and enable the former to consolidate their power.

No one even raises the question of whether Philippine society as a whole is ready and capable of what’s being proposed. People are being driven towards unfamiliar territory where only the driver knows how to navigate.

Not only that, no one considers that without experience of autonomy or self-government, things may not work out as expected. So this is a reckless proposal. Because autonomy is the essence of federalism.

Without knowledge and experience of autonomy, the people’s powerlessness will prevail. They will be freely manipulated by seasoned traditional politicians. The trapos will abuse and misuse the powers delegated to them by the people, their principals. They’re used to doing it, they’re already spoiled by it, they’ll keep on doing it.

There is no local government today that can claim to be governed truly by the principle of autonomy. Their officials are doing all the governing. Their special bodies that are supposed to involve relevant sectors of the community, with citizens as active partners in planning and public administration, are marginalized and manipulated.

As for the citizens, they are mainly passive recipients of government services and patronage programs. They do not hold their officials accountable. No one gets penalized or removed from office for corruption, abuse, or incompetence.

It takes responsible citizens to established responsible governments. Citizens with an assertive sense of sovereignty. Citizens who cannot be bought and cannot be intimidated by abusive officials, by their own public servants!

Where is autonomy exemplified in our country today? Where can one find a jurisdiction where the people (constituents) and not just the officials are active participants in governance? Is there even one barangay that exemplifies autonomy or self-government?

Until the bureaucracy and the citizenry learn to be autonomous, they’re not ready for a change in the system. The road map, the guide to self-government, has been awaiting enforcement and compliance for over a quarter of a century already.

It’s what the Local Government Code of 1991 is. But it is poorly implemented by the officials and hardly complied with by the constituents. And the trapos say we need federalism? The idea will only be bastardized! And we may even risk the dismemberment of our republic. Because slicing it up into federal states may stoke the fires of secession.

(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific and the PPI-Unicef awardee as outstanding columnist. He is chairman/convenor of the Gising Barangay Movement Inc.. E-mail:  valdehuesa@gmail.com)