For The Bohol Tribune
In This Our Journey
NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS
Probably like other Filipinos brought up in the tradition of civil discourse
and liberal education, I am still reeling from the impact of having seen the
President of my country behave like someone who have had too many in a
gathering of fraternity brothers and sorority counterparts in one of those Friday
night parties on the campus long ago.
No amount of admonition about understanding his behavior “ in context,” as
his apologists would explain the morning after, which meant allowing him to
express himself honestly by wolf whistling and cat-calling at a a lady
reporter, can erase the bad impression created by this incident. In fact, it
would have been easy understanding his misbehavior if he were drunk during that
meeting and, hence, he was not in full control of what he was saying and doing.
I just hope that in future meetings, he will also think about us, his
audience, rather than only himself when
he appears in a forum to answer serious questions from media practitioners
about his policies and programs. He was voted into power to exercise leadership
and not to provide entertainment by telling jokes and serenading lady reporters.
If he persists in this laid-back, informal style of conducting press
conferences, it is possible his serious messages about corruption, illegal drug
trade, good governance and the like will be lost in competition against the
furor created by his personal antics and idiosyncrasies.
One casualty in that press conference marred by disorganization,
peripheral discussions and inadequate audio is a discussion on Federalism, the
reason why a significant number of Filipinos voted him to power. Rightly or
wrongly, Filipinos believe that among the candidates, the President-elect could
be relied upon to provide strong leadership towards re-configuration of its
governance institutions to address more effectively problems which have not
been adequately attended to by previous administrations or, to view it another
way, they missed seeing these problems in terms of the inadequacy of the governance
structure.
I am convinced that many Filipinos, including those who voted for
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, thirst for more information about Federalism,
a subject which has been mentioned prominently during his campaign as a
solution to the secessionist problem in Mindanao.
His place in history will be assured if Federalism will happen during his
term. An article in Wikipedia documents his role in the advocacy for
decentralization and Federalism also espoused by former UP President Jose
Abueva and Senator Aquilino Pimentel.
A write-up in Wikepedia narrates:
“Beginning in
late 2014, Davao City mayor Rodrigo
Duterte launched a
nationwide campaign promoting a charter change for federalism. During his visit
to Cebu City in October of the same year, Duterte stated that federalism will
facilitate better delivery of services to the people. He also saw the current
system as ‘antiquated’ where distribution of public funds is
disproportionately biased towards Manila.
“Aside from the
economic aspect, federalism is also seen as the best means to address problems
in Mindanao which suffers the most from ethnoreligious conflicts. He added
that the current unitary form of government has not worked well given the
ethnic diversity in the country.”
It’s
unfortunate, however, that the President-elect has been devoting more time and
efforts to explain if his wolf whistles are for sex or not than to clarify the type and intricacies of federalism
that is to be expected in his administration.
After our column
last Sunday in this paper, we ran a series of posts on our Facebook page on the
positive and negative aspects of federalism based on the experiences of Federal
countries. The result was that while before, our posting would get responses
from less than ten friends in the network, these posts yielded reactions from
twice that number in less than a week.
These responses show
the broad range of perceptions that people have on federalism. Let me cite a
few here:
Tristan A. Catindig, fellow Upsilonian whom I
have not seen for more than four decades, found the time to respond to what I
wrote on FB:
“Nes, I agree with you that the
matter of whether we should or should not shift to a federal system of
government (the "New System") is too important to leave to the
politicians alone to decide. I believe, however, that the following preliminary
questions should first be asked and answered by the proponents of the New
System: (1) What problem(s) do we have that would require a shift to the New
System? (2) What is the proof that we have such problem(s)? (3) Assuming that
the problem(s) do exist, could not this problem(s) be solved in some other way
that would be easier, faster, and cheaper (e.g., by amending the Local
Government Code and devolving more powers to the local government units)?
“If the answer to the last question
were a "no" then the proponents of the New System should now proceed
to disclose to the public the details of the New System they have in mind
(because there are a lot of variants). Creating a federal system of government
is not going to be a walk in the park as there are a lot of pitfalls to avoid
if such a system were to be successful in solving the problem(s) it is supposed
to solve.”
Richard Prado, my kumpare who was UNICEF head in Papua New Guinea and Mongolia
and deputy representative in the People’s Republic of China, has this to say:
“You're absolutely correct, Pare . The transition to a federal system is
not all about allocation of political powers but also about allocation of
resources and other non-tangible factors such as ethno-cultural loyalty and
religious faith even if our new Great Leader does not profess to the latter.
Surely the subject of federalism demands the contribution of all who would like
to continue to believe in one constitution.”
In another FB post, Richard writes: “As an advocate of decentralization,
i believe we have the desire for federalization a long time ago. But should it
necessarily be under a parliamentary system or under a more stable and more
familiar presidential system?”
In an earlier post, he wonders: “Can we transit to a federal system
within 6 years given the fact that we are faced with very delicate issues that
we have not experienced and will not take the risk of experiencing? What a
challenge indeed!”
Orlando B. Pabotoy, former Mayor of Cortes who
holds the distinction of being the youngest Mayor in Bohol in the 1980s, writes
from Fairfax, Virginia where he and his family have lived for decades:
“This is a tremendous task for all
to take and begin with. Encourage full citizen participation to discuss from
reestablishing a new constitution ascribing to a new form of government.
“Creating a new structure and building
that framework of Government should not begin by election of representatives
for the constitutional assembly who propose a constitution and submit (I should
say rammed) it for the people to ratify it yes or no. The aspirations and
sentiments of our people from the barangays ,towns, cities, districts, provinces
and regions must be heard and listened to by the peoples' representatives and
vice versa.
“Otherwise we will be represented by someone whom
we do not know and who doesn’t know us as a people or someone who does not know
WHAT HE WILL BE DOING at all. Our existing laws do not have sufficient
safeguards and punishment against corruption. Our courts have the pleasure of
rendering decisions detrimental to the State abd favorable to a powerful corrupt
senator for instance.
“We have now a venue for that
discussion aside from community assemblies like what we are doing now. We will
be surprised to hear from people we don't expect to have ideas to correct even
legislative wrongs, diminish corruption in the government etc. The community
has the idea and capacity to even do immediate solutions to their own local
problems more so if it is strengthened by a system of governance that recognizes
and enhances that capacity instead of taking it away from them.
“The National Government only exists for the
good and general welfare of all its people. Very sad to say that since our
Independence our Government officials are very keen for the Benevolence first
and foremost to themselves. THEIR MOTTO goes " What are we in power
for" Our people should not allow this kind of attitude to continue.
PHILIPPINES TAKE THIS CHANCE THE RIGHT WAY!!!”
Maria Duncan, a friend
and retired teacher who travels a lot abroad and articulates now and then her
opinions on matters affecting the home country, has this to say: “Deeply
concerning, but worth the try! Who knows? We may rise to the challenge, still!”
Dr. Charles G .
Kick III, a UP Los Banos alumnus who now lives in the Pacific with
his Filipina wife and family, has this suggestion:
“When the RP's Senate
was devised, the 0.1% told us that they wanted it because it was what the
Americans did. Wrong, they wanted it because that's what the Romans did. The
Roman Senate was comprised almost entirely of Roman residents--almost no one
from any of its provinces became a Senator. That centralized things where the
0.1% could control them.
“The US Senate, on the other hand,
is comprised of members from each State (more or less the same as the RP's
regions). The very least change towards federalism would be to change the way
that Senators are elected in the Philippines by having the winning candidate in
each region becoming a member rather than the top vote getters nationwide.”
Al Palomar, a noted literary critic and editor who has lived in
Norman, Oklahoma for decades, has this to say: “ First and foremost, we
have to improve our education system. Ignorance is the root of all evil. Our
people deserve the kind of politicians they choose to elect. Our politicians
don't want to educate our people because their success depends upon the
ignorance of the electorate.”
Rodolfo C. Kintanar, former
classmate at the Asian Institute of Management, writes: “I am in Davao City now
Nes to attend to the needs of the Davao School for the Blind when I read your
discussion about Federalism. With Duterte advocating Federalism there is a big
chance we will go into that path.
Let me
end here for lack of space. All these responses will be enough to convince the
Duterte
Cabinet to
devote a little more time to discuss details about the type of Federalism that they
will propose for the country, a more substantial topic to discuss rather than
the shades of meaning that a Presidential wolf whistle conveys. ###
NMP/03 June 2016/10.24 p.m.
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