Creeping federalism

President Duterte did not endorse federalism during his SONA last Monday. When asked by reporters after his speech, he said “I’m out of it because I think that it will pass beyond my time.”

He said other things, essentially that federalism devolves a lot of authority to local governments and requires a strong president. “Kasi ang federal, it’s a very loose structure… Until such time that we have perfected it, there has to be a strong president to put together the country.”

In other words, he thinks we won’t have enough time to adopt a federal system in the next three years. He does not think the local officials at the regional and LGU levels are up to the challenge. He is right on both counts.

But just because Duterte is no longer excited about federalism does not mean his minions will not try to railroad charter change. Speaker Cayetano, before he was sworn into office, has said as much.

Then again, just because they have an extra super majority in both chambers does not mean it will be easy to force charter change with provisions for a federal form of government. The opposition of Duterte’s economic managers to federalism, due to its exorbitant costs, is starting to make people, including Duterte, think.

Besides, as one majority congressman told me, they do not have to waste time and court public backlash by forcing through charter change just to have greater local autonomy.

For one thing, LGUs are already happy to get an increased share in the expanded IRA as ordered by the Supreme Court’s final decision upholding the position of Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas. Indeed, the 2019 proposed budget of P640.6 billion allotment to LGUs will increase by about 50 percent due to the inclusion of the Bureau of Customs collection of national taxes, including tariffs and custom duties.

The House may, however, still push for the adoption of a joint resolution calling for a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution, but only to loosen foreign ownership restrictions that investors keep on complaining about and not a wholesale remake of the Constitution.

Former speaker Sonny Belmonte had made such a proposal some years ago to just leave to Congress the duty of determining how much equity foreign investors can have in some business sectors.

Then, too, nothing will stop them from expanding the local autonomy provisions of the present Constitution to make it similar to the Spanish model through ordinary legislation.

My source says they do not need an outright constitutional amendment. An ordinary law passed by both houses of Congress may be sufficient, as was the case when the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region was formed.

The congressman called this strategy “creeping federalism.” Any region that wants greater local autonomy can have a law passed by Congress, approved by the President and subjected to a plebiscite in the affected area.

In other words, being autonomous becomes optional. Autonomous regions will have greater authority and responsibilities. Basic services, including education and health care, will be local responsibilities. They will have greater power to tax, grant incentives to investors, float bonds and do things that they can afford to do from their share in national taxes and proceeds from their own taxes.

But the thing is… the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region is heavily subsidized. What will prevent the Cordillera Autonomous Region or any other autonomous, but poor region, from demanding the same level of subsidy from the national government on top of IRA?

My congressman source talked about following the Spanish model. I did a bit of Google research and found out that the Spaniards failed to satisfy their many regions, like Catalonia, with this approach.

The Global Network on Federalism and Devolved Governance confirmed that indeed, the Constitution of 1978 has allowed Spain to pass from a unitary and centralized state to a new arrangement that resembles other federal systems.

“The Spanish Constitution is unusual in many ways. First, in spite of not being federal in name, the 1978 Constitution carried out a greater decentralization of political powers than exists in many nominally federal countries. The overall structure is known as the ‘State of the Autonomies’ or simply as ‘the State.’

“The Spanish system has great possibilities for evolution, either through mechanisms that allow changes to the constitutional distribution of powers, or through interpretation of undefined constitutional provisions. The Constitution does not identify any of the autonomous communities that constitute the country, nor does it fix their powers, which have been left to subsequent laws.

“All of these factors justify the assessment that the Spanish model is a ‘sub-constitutional’ model. Prior to 1978, 40 years of totalitarian dictatorship had solidified the traditional centralism of Spain. However, in that year the country passed from a unitary state to one constituted by 17 autonomous communities, which have significant political, administrative, and financial powers…

“While the practical application of the Constitution, and, in particular, the scope of the powers of the central government, has resulted in extensive autonomy for the autonomous communities in quantitative terms, the quality of this autonomy is questionable…

“The Constitution enumerates the central government’s powers, but it does not determine the powers of the autonomous communities… The number and degree of powers can vary among the autonomous communities…

“The result was transcribed into an open and flexible constitutional text. However, developments since then have caused reason for much debate among sectors that have very different interpretations of the system. The current political scene suggests that instead of repairing the ‘breakdowns’ of the system, perhaps Spain will decide to replace it entirely.”

So much for Spain’s creeping federalism model. Let us have our own, one based on a region’s ability to be financially independent and progress faster if given autonomy. Let us not give local political dynasties license to plunder more funds from the National Treasury.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco