Why rush federalism?

“Just what is the rush to dump the present government system and embrace a system that is fairly alien to the Filipinos?”

For the life of me, I just can’t understand why Congress wants to quickly transform the presidential system that exists today into a federal system of government and even goes to the extent of planning the cancellation of the 2019 elections.

Resetting the 2019 elections translates to lengthening the elected officials’ term, with the incumbent elected representatives, whether senator, congressman, governor, mayor and down the line, still sitting in their posts despite having no mandate from the electorate to remain in their posts.

Just what is the rush to dump the present government system and embrace a system that is fairly alien to the Filipinos?

The presidential-parliamentary system was ushered in during the Marcos rule, but which system failed to work and eventually transitioned into Marcos giving himself the power to legislate laws without the need of the concurrence and approval of Parliament, known more as the National Assembly through the infamous Amendment 6.

The problem with a pure parliamentary system, if such is adapted by Congress and through a constituent assembly, even if the argument is that the prime minister can easily be toppled through a non-confidence vote, hardly works in Asia and won’t work in the Philippines either.

What is likely to happen is that a Philippine prime minister gets to stay in his position because his party will always be the ruling party.

The reason is fairly simple. In this country, political turncoatism is rampant. Party loyalty does not exist as elected senators, congressmen or assemblymen, should there be a parliamentary system, know that no such thing as party loyalty as our politicians dump their party and swear allegiance to whoever becomes the prime minister.

“In this country, political turncoatism is rampant.”

And worse, even as scandals after scandals are bared, the Congress, or the Parliament, is hardly expected to lose in a no-confidence vote, as the majority of the members of Parliament will be the partymates of the prime minister. If the prime minister is kicked out on a no-confidence vote, this would mean that they too, would be out of power and position, as it is a Cabinet government that is formed.

This is sure to happen in this country, under a pure parliamentary system since past Philippine presidents and Cabinet officials whose administrations were rocked by scandals and serious ones at that, were never brought before impeachment committee hearings and impeachment courts.

What makes any Filipino think that a Prime Minister and his government can ever be legitimately toppled through a no confidence vote?

This is not to say that the Filipino electorate should shun plans on the country’s shift to federalism, however, the arguments from critics always focus on the bogey of dictatorship and with President Duterte still in the power position during a transition period with him as dictator. There is no logic in such arguments and can only bare their intent to bring about the fear of dictatorship to kill the move for federalism.

The argument should be on the rush for this shift to federalism. Why not just move to amend the Charter? Why not a constitutional convention where delegates are elected? Why can’t the shift come slowly, instead of having some kind of still alien system thrust upon the Filipinos given a short transition period, especially since our local officials are hardly ready to take on such positions in states under a federal system.

What should be done if this is truly the wish of the Filipino people is for government to slowly get into a federalism shift and slowly introduce the system, such as first, amending the Charter to create several autonomous regions where the local executives are given powers. What the local officials would have, in addition, is their own autonomous parliament but which laws created have to follow whatever the Supreme Court says by way of its rulings.

Perhaps it would also be the right time to abolish all these youth councils such as the Sangguniang Kabataan and similar councils as they are practically useless even as a training ground for young politicians.

Give the elected officials for the autonomous regions the time to exercise legitimately and not abusively, the powers granted under autonomous governments. That would perhaps be the right time to introduce federalism as it would be fairly easy for the regions to operate under the federal system and having a state of their own.

In truth, whenever there is a constitutional change proposed, the electorate is almost always forced into ratifying something voters are unaware of, as they are scared by the opposition and other critics with dire scenarios to get them to vote against the draft charter.

And the majority of the Filipino electorate still would not know just what they are approving or rejecting.