Federalism still Congress’ top priority – Speaker Alvarez
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez assured on Wednesday that President Duterte’s federalism proposal remains Congress’ top legislative priority as the House of Representatives and Senate are expected to convene the Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) early next year to debate and scrutinize the draft Charter.
Alvarez said at the second Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting Tuesday night, House and Senate leaders agreed that the deliberation on proposals to amend the 1987 Constitution should jump-start.
"We discussed federalism. We need to jumpstart the discussions. We will discuss with the Senate leadership when we are going to convene the Constituent Assembly,” Alvarez told reporters.
More likely, the Con-Ass will be convened “early next year as the House Committee on Constitutional
Amendments created four technical working groups (TWGs) that seek to approve the draft new Philippine Federal Constitution by November.”
Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado, committee chairman, said the TWG members agreed to finish their work by November this year and submit the draft new Federal Constitution to the committee for final discussion and approval.
The final draft of the Philippine Federal Constitution will be submitted to the House Committee on Rules, chaired by Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas by December 2017.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, one of the key proponents of the federalism, expressed hope that the creation of the TWGs would fast track the government’s shift to federal system.
“We welcome this inspired move by the House committee on constitutional amendments to create TWGs that would work on drafting a proposed federal constitution. This will certainly help speed up the process of shifting to federalism and enable us to scrutinize recommendations in an organized fashion,” he said.
Villafuerte urged the TWGs, particularly those in charge of the provisions on the National Economy and Patrimony, to strongly consider proposals to relax the restrictions on foreign ownership for the Philippines to regain its competitive edge among other Asian economies in attracting long-term foreign direct investments (FDIs) that would create more jobs, especially in the countryside.
Term extension
Meanwhile, allies of the President in the PDP-Laban is pushing for the term extension of local officials under the Federal system.
“Three years is so short and there’s so much fund needed in election. The election has become a business affair. Our proposal is five years because we think that's already enough and if it became two terms, that’s already ten years,” Jonathan Malaya, executive director of the PDP-Laban Federalism Institute noted.
“The PDP-Laban form of Federalism is the creation of two chambers of government which seeks to empower local governments and equalization of funds. This is a system of bringing government services closer to the people,” he stressed.
The model being proposed by former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., the Father of the Local Government code seeks to create eleven regional states, Malaya said. (With a report from Erwin Beleo)