Proponents of Charter change in the Duterte administration should heed the warnings made by the government’s own economic team of possible job losses with the shift to a federal form of government, Senator Francis Pangilinan said Saturday.
In a statement, Pangilinan said Duterte’s economic managers noted that 95 percent of the 1.46 million employees of the national government will lose their job.
“That’s about 1.387 million people, or the equivalent of the combined populations of Pateros, Makati, San Juan, and Mandaluyong in 2015,” he said.
“Without even talking about the impact on families, this loss of jobs scenario alone painted by the country’s economic managers is too much a price to pay for Charter change, as proposed,” the senator added,
Meanwhile, Rodrigo Duterte’s election as President in 2016 is a clear sign the Filipino people support federalism, a group aligned with the cause said.
Dante Liban, national president of the People’s National Movement for Federalism, told radio dzBB that pushing for this change in a system of government under a president other than Duterte “would be impossible.”
“In our view, his election is a clear sign of support for his proposal to change the system from a unitary form of government toward a federal system,” said Liban, a former congressman of Quezon City’s 2nd district.
The advocacy for a federal form of government has long been a discourse throughout Philippine history, and some Philippine heroes—such as Dr. Jose Rizal and President Emilio Aguinaldo—had advocated for it, Liban said.
Discussions on federalism had also emerged in the Visayas, particularly in Negros and Iloilo, before the Treaty of Pari—which transferred the Philippines to American rule from the Spanish—way back in 1898, and in Mindanao as well, said Liban.
The decades-long conflict in Mindanao, the underdevelopment of cities in other parts of the country, issues of graft and corruption by public officials, and political dynasties are problems that can be addressed by federalism, he added.
Corruption of public officials can be addressed immediately under federalism, Liban said, and the Filipino people will have the opportunity to lead their own local region.
“President Duterte has personally experienced the problems of the current form of government, and I am convinced he is sincere in pushing for federalism,” he added.