Publisher's Note

Publisher’s Note
by CK May is the month of flowers not just in the Philippines but also here in Calgary. A lot of my neighbors have done their spring cleaning and unfortunately I cannot cope up with them. I remember that during this time of the year my husband, Hank gets busier day by day. He takes care [...]
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FEDERALISM?

By: Tigs Tidalgo

Resolution #10 at the senate floor once proposed to change the structure of our country to federalism. It was simply slicing the archipelago into eleven autonomous states. Mindanao has three. One was Bangsamoro for the Muslim people . It didn’t go through.

Lately, a candidate for president this coming national Philippine election is advocating to adapt the concept of federalism.

Previous incidences around the globe illustrated vividly that tinkering constitution is messy and expensive. We should not even think about it. There is no further need. What we have at hand is good enough.

Adding one more tier to the system is putting more crooks in government. The present one is already infested from down the barangay and up to national level. Corruption is still beyond redemption and to accommodate more by creating another segment is more than the nation could bear.

There are enticing probabilities that through proper implementation of federalism, some economic good may come about. Mindanao has the world’s envy in mineral deposit. It was terribly shorthanded during the logging boom years. It could be different when local authority is by right responsible to administer resources like the Canadian provinces. Such arrangement is indeed beneficial to the region.

However, the price is too high. Federalism loosens the binding tie of our country’s sovereignty as one nation. The transformation from current system to federalism undertakes major realignment in rights and responsibilities. The nature of our government regardless of leadership at the helm forfeits its personality to tinker matters of this proportion.

Our country is still in intensive care. True that It has some symptom for healing, but it is still with ailment from the virus of greed and malice. This is not the time to think about anything else. Federalism won’t get rid of the disease. It instead adds more germs that could lead to further complication.

It could be amputation. We could have the Republic of Mindanao, East Visayas, West Visayas, United Tagalog Provinces, The Dominion of Central Luzon, The Ilocano Republic, the Bicolano Union and even an independent nations of lumad or natives.

Federalism poses to fracture our country to bits and pieces. It is a race towards local autonomy and self-rule. It creates economic imbalance amongst regions. It promotes the creation of private armies and encourages to booster political dynasties. It is a direction to muster feudal lordship.

We must first wriggle out from the embrace of fraudulence before we soar aloft with vision to prosper. We must leave behind decades of decadence before we adapt the goodness of an idea. We must endeavour to unshackle people from the bondage of destitution. When progress is written on the happy faces of our citizenry, then and only then shall we talk about something else.

Federalism is not for building a nation. It is a design in the governance of a free and responsible society. We are not. We are still people that even to desire decency in the business of government is so difficult to realize.

We can not redeem ourselves from the spite of wrong when pronouncement of incorrectness is muted out by fear or timidity. Yes, we do love our country, but we have strange way of showing it. I left friends in graveyards from sacrifices to order and peace. They had dreams for the young to inherit the goodness of their toils …and so were the many that shielded our country with their lives from hurt and aches.

We are free people. Yet, we seem to forget that freedom is not a gift. It is to be earned and guarded endlessly by vigilance, duty and responsibility. Our heroes did their share through blood and tears. We wonder if they were the last of the few with noble breed and courage to dare.

Federalism is a gamble. Yes, it is apparent that the present set-up is not working perfectly well. But at least we know who’s to blame. Besides, the fault is not the system. It’s in people that runs it.

It’s corruption.

FEDERALISM?

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