On the issue of Federalism as a system of government for our country
10/16/08
On the problem of Philippine politics:
My Public Administration Principle was plain and simple governance based on public service. I believed that the government exists because of the people. Under the Social Contract Theory, power and authority emanates from the people. Without the people there is no government, without the government there is no public administration. But in my field experience the situation was different. Public officials and the people in authority appear to be living on Divine Right Theory. They act as if people should bow and serve them and that the government exists to serve their personal interests. Their motto; “What is good for me is good for my locality.”
On the Organizational problem:
On the problem of Geography:
I believe that as an archipelagic country we would have difficulty in mapping out an acceptable federal state territorial subdivision. The problem lies with the small island provinces which are too small as a state. If you attach it with other islands to compose a state it then again defeats the purpose of a federal state which is to provide accessible public service. Topography will also restrict trade and economic activity within the defined federal regions. Likewise there is a tendency for a strong federal state to secede and declare their independence because geography provides natural defined territorial borders such as SULBAT (Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi). This problem occurred in the disintegration of the former state of Yugoslavia which resulted in Balkanization.
On the problem of Economics:
There is a problem with the equitable distribution of natural resources and wealth in our country. A lot of defined federal states are at a disadvantage over economic growth and development compared to the few developed and wealthy states. They cannot compete economically with the rich states which would result to economic imbalance that will pull down the poorer states further down the line. The problem with that is you cannot always bail out an ailing State from economic deficit or else you defeat the purpose of federalism. In the recent senate resolution of Sen. Pimentel he suggested a budget of 100 billion pesos for the 11 federal states in order to jumpstart their economic growth but the question begins with, where will you get the budget? Next is, will the federal states have the right economic managers to push for the right economic reforms? Lastly, how sure are we that it will not be part of the spoils of the new state leadership and just drain out through corruption? Case in point again is the ARMM. Thus federalism would be an expensive experiment.
On the problem of Culture:
The first problem with regard to culture is our ethnocentric nature. We take care of our ethnic affiliation first above others. The problem is that there is no major ethnic group that could make up a single state thus a federal state will be composed of several ethnic affiliations wherein a dominant province or ethnology with in the state would emerge while the others would be treated as minorities. The dominant ethnic affiliation would alienate the minority. Case in point again was ARMM wherein when the Tausugs ruled ARMM all the projects for development was allocated to Sulu. Maguidanao and Lanao were forgotten. The ARMM is composed of three major ethnic tribes Tausug, Maranaw, and Maguindanaoan. The other ethnic group such as Yakan and Samal became a minority and has no say in the ARMM structure.
The second problem of culture is the culture of corruption. I believe that the new federal states will inherit the culture of corruption from the old local government set up. As the saying goes “you can not teach old dogs new tricks.” If corruption prevails, no amount of good planning and scientific design for a successful federal state model would succeed.
Recommendation:
I would like to recommend that we study first our position before supporting a drastic shift into a federal form of government. Let us not romanticize the notion of independent progressive federal states that the developed countries have. We should first ask ourselves who are these people that is pushing for federalism and parliamentary form of government. What’s in it for them? We should guard ourselves from these vultures who want to carve out our country and divide it among themselves. It already happened during the commonwealth period wherein the motivation of the elite Philippine Assembly to call for independence was not born out of patriotism but because of the prospect of spoils and the potential of running the country for themselves. Thus when the Americans left a new set of masters took over.
Before Federalism I think it would be best if we could reform first our government under the existing system. We can strengthen the Local Government Code, curb out corruption, reform the COMELEC and computerize the elections, improve our economic and fiscal standing, resolve our peace and order situation, educate our people, and strengthen our institutions. Only then we can entertain the concept of transforming to a Parliamentary-Federal form of government. I believe the problem does not lie on the system but with the people who run it…