A forum on federalism
For our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky we bring you the 50th or golden anniversary of Zonta 1 that is celebrating their anniversary on November 8. Zonta 1 is an organization that has helped a lot of poor people. These days their focus is helping out teenage pregnancy. When your teenage girl gets pregnant the whole family is affected. Hence they are women truly in need of support, financial, spiritual, and emotional. So on November 29, Zonta 1 will hold its golden celebration at 6:30 p.m. at the Cebu Country Club.
For this anniversary we bring you Zonta 1 President Minnie Yuvienco, with past president Tess Chan, and director and past president Mathea Baguia. It is just but right that Yuvienco is the president now because after all the first president of Zonta 1 was her mother Dr. Suga Sotto Yuvienco. My own mother was also a past president of this organization. Zonta 1 also created Zonta 2 where my wife Jessica was once president.
So please watch this episode tonight on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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Last Saturday morning we attended a forum on federalism entitled “A Forum on the Economic, Social and Political Viability of Federalism in the Philippines” held at the City Sports Club, sponsored by the Ateneo School of Government and the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP).
The first speaker gave pointers on Bayanihan Federalism. He was none other than Conrad Generoso, spokesperson of the Consultative Committee on the Review of the 1987 Constitution. This was followed by my good friend Michael Henry Yusingco, a research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, who talked about Charter Change vs. Legislative Reform, and the third speaker, an economist at the Ateneo Policy Center, talked about economic advantages and risks of federalism in the Philippines.
There were three reactors; Tomas Riveral of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, President of the University of San Carlos Supreme Student Council Deodatus Paulo Burgos, and former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. Since most of the participants were millennials who went to the forum to learn more about federalism, I would like to believe that Mr. Burgos gave the best reaction in that forum.
My former idol, Davide, did not give a reaction but a lengthy speech denouncing what the Consultative Commission drafted, even attacking Generoso. Come on! The purpose of that forum was to educate people on the pros and cons of federalism and giving Davide a chance to be a reactor when he is totally against changing the 1987 Constitution because he took part in making it.
When I asked Ateneo Policy Center organizers why they invited an anti-federalist, they told me Davide was invited by the BCBP. So are they telling me the BCBP is against charter change and Federalism? In my book, Davide is a brilliant man, but when he says that federalism is anti-Filipino he is totally mistaken because no system of governance is anti-people. But then the years of Davide’s yellowtard background has taken its toll on the brilliant man. He defends a unitary system because he greatly benefited from it while the rest of us Filipinos still shout Imperial Manila today!
Yusingco is correct that when you cry Imperial Manila, it is not a territorial issue where one can respond saying that there is also Imperial Cebu! These are just one of the things that the three speakers taught the audience. In my book the best lesson to learn about the advantages of federalism is when each state has its own Ombudsman, so unlike in today’s 1987 Constitution where there is only one Ombudsman for a hundred million people, in a Federal State there will be many Ombudsmen and this would give justice to Filipinos who have been deprived of justice for the past 31 years thanks to the 1987 Constitution that Davide defends so much. Filipinos hate the fact that crooks in the government steal money but do not go to prison! That’s the beauty of a federal state!