A fighting chance

PRIOR to the Duterte administration, people did not give any serious thought to a possible shift in the form of government to federal. Now, everybody’s talking about it. With the President himself as the No. 1 campaigner, people are now open to the idea.

Considering that majority of the national government’s resources are concentrated in Metro Manila and Luzon, the President favors a federal form of government to eliminate unequal distribution of resources among provinces.

Federalism is a form of government based on democracy where the power to govern is divided between national and provincial or state governments. Most federal governments give the central government powers on foreign policy and national defense. United States, Australia, India, Canada, Columbia, Brazil and South Africa have a federal form of government.

Aside from the long- deplored wealth sharing disparity, federalism, to Duterte, is the only solution they see that would address not just the problem on insurgency in Mindanao. He said the creation of a Bangsamoro entity could help in the Mindanao peace but added that for real development to come in, federal states must be created in other areas where other ethnic groups reside.

He had an interesting idea three years ago. Aside from the Bangsamoro, a separate Bangsatausug state could be created for the group of Nur Misuari and the Moro National Liberation Front, while more separate states could be created in other parts of the Visayas and Mindanao based on their ethnicity. With violence engulfing Marawi City and other parts of Mindanao intermittently, a thorough study needs to be undertaken to give this idea a fighting chance – no pun intended.

The window of possibility for federalism is bigger now.