Malacañang on Saturday said the concerns raised by some members of the administration’s economic managers on the draft federal constitution are part of the democratic process, saying the President always encourages a healthy discourse.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the comment as Finance and Socioeconomic Planning Secretaries Carlos Dominguez III and Ernesto Pernia said there might be“ambiguous provisions” on the allocation of expenditures under federalism.

“As we have said, we encourage a healthy discussion regarding the draft federal Constitution,” Roque said in a statement.

He said the comments coming from the heads of the Department of Finance and the National Economic Development Authority could always contribute to the discourse on federalism.

“The opinion of the President’s economic managers is one of the myriad voices that would contribute to a higher level of discourse on the proposed federal charter,” he added.

Earlier, Dominguez sought clarification on expenditure and revenue assignment under the proposed federal states, but added he was not against federalism. He also expressed concern on who would shoulder national debt.

Pernia expressed concern federalism could strain government finances and disrupt its infrastructure program.

But Roque dismissed the issues raised by the two economic managers and insisted the shift to federalism will have no adverse effect to the economy and the government would still be able to implement infrastructure projects under the “Build, Build, Build” program.

The Consultative Committee (ConCom), which drafted the federal constitution, also allayed fears of Duterte’s economic managers, noting that “the fiscal administration is quite clear in the draft Constitution.”

ConCom spokesperson Ding Generoso said under the ConCom’s draft federal charter, the federal (national) government retains the taxation power, except for selected taxes and fees wherein the collection of which will be transferred to the regional governments.

He added that sharing of the collections from top four sources of revenues shall be 50 percent for the federal government and 50 percent for the regional governments.

Moreover, he said internal revenue allotment will no longer be a concern of the federal government since the power to distribute the shares of local government units (LGU) will belong to the regional government.

The corresponding amount is part of the one trillion pesos that correspond to the 50 percent share of the regions in the top four revenue sources, he added. KM with PNA