Federalism forum held in Lipa City

LIPA CITY, Batangas — The Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) took residents of this city a step closer to realizing the benefits of Federalism through a briefing and consultative forum held here last Wednesday.

Facing more than a thousand attendees from various sectors at the Plaza Independencia, Assistant Secretary Romulo Arugay explained to barangay captains, religious leaders, barangay workers, teachers, and students the shift from the present form of government to a federal form.

Many of the questions addressed by Arugay pertained to budget allocations and the autonomy in every region for project bidding process, wage rates, security and peace and order.

Even the issues of same sex marriage and divorce were tackled in the open forum.

“Sa aking obserbasyon, buo po ang pagtanggap ng ating kapwa Filipino sa Federalismo. Ang pinakamalaking pagbabago diyan ay yung pagbaba ng pondo ng gobyerno sa grassroots level tulad ng LGU, probinsiya, mga kabayanan at siyudad hanggang sa barangay (In my observation, our fellow Filipinos wholly accept Federalism. The biggest change would be the devolution of government funding to the grassroots level like the LGU, the province, towns, and cities up to the villages),”Arugay said.

He said that equal distribution of government funds will be according to the capacity of the local government to use them. He added that during the transition period, some national agencies may possibly be abolished.