THROUGH federalism, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte is hoping to stop internal migration in the National Capital Region.
She believes federalism would help stem the tide of internal migration in Metro Manila, citing migration is triggering rapid urbanization and straining the resources of highly urbanized cities.
Quezon City is like other cities in the NCR whose population have rapidly increased over the years due to the influx of people from the rural areas looking for greener pastures, the vice mayor noted.
“In seven or eight years’ time, our population in Quezon City has increased by more than 400,000. It’s not that we’re lacking, but we keep building and building, but migrants continue to swell,” she said.
Belmonte said one of the solution to address the problem of migration is the development of the provinces.
“This is important so the people there will no longer go here in Metro Manila,” she added.
Belmonte said she backed the shift to a federal form of government to solve key economic problems and provide each region with equal opportunities for development.
“Ideally, according to the principles of federalism, there will be equal growth,” she added.
If the problem of rural-to-urban migration is addressed, the vice mayor said, “we will have more assets or more resources to spend on our own people.”
“Here in Quezon City, we will be able to stabilize our population growth at we can easily address the needs of the people,” she noted.