MANILA,
May 18 -- The proposed federalism model that may be adopted by the government
will be customized to be “uniquely Filipino,” Senate Pres. Aquilino Pimentel
III said Thursday.
Pimentel,
president of the administration party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng
Bayan (PDP-Laban) made this assurance anew noting that it draws lessons from
other countries that are customized to the Philippines’ needs.
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| Senate Pres. Aquilino Pimentel III |
He
said that the PDP Laban studied 25 years of devolution under the Local
Government Code, 20 years of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and
picked on the experiences of the United States, Germany, France, Russia, China,
India, Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Malaysia, Japan,
Africa, and many others.
Moreover,
the foundational ideas of the model have been provided by by party founder,
former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and party chairman Pres. Rodrigo
Duterte himself.
"What
we propose is a model that draws lessons from these countries and customized to
our needs and circumstances. A uniquely Filipino federalism model,"
Pimentel said in a statement.
He
said that the model will have two constitutionally established orders of
government -- federal government and the regional governments that would have
some genuine autonomy from each other. However, each level of government is
primarily accountable to its respective electorate.
"They
have some genuine autonomy but not independence," the senate president
said noting that there would still be one constitution, flag, national anthem,
foreign policy, armed forces, national police force, public education system,
central bank and monetary system.
He
further explained that each level of government in the model would have a
particular jurisdiction -- areas of public policy in which it alone has the
final authority, unless it decides to share this jurisdiction with the other.
Economically,
politically effective
Pimentel
said that the model is also meant to create a more economically and politically
effective administrative structure based on eleven regions, each with its own
regional governments.
These
are the regional governments of Northern Luzon (Regions 1, 2 and CAR), Metro
Manila (National Capital Region), Southern Tagalog (Region 4-A), Bicol (Region
5), Mindoro-Romblon-Marinduque (Region 4-B), Western Visayas (Region 6),
Central Eastern Visayas (Regions 7 and 8), Northern Mindanao (Regions 9, 10 and
CARAGA), Southern Mindanao (Region 11 and 12) and the Bangsa Moro (ARMM).
The
regional governments will be headed by a regional governor directly elected by
the people in the region. He will have powers of supervision over provincial,
city, and municipal executives.
In
the division of powers, matters that concern the entire nation belong to the
federal government while basic services to the people would be handled by the
regional governments.
The
senate president said that if the matter is a basic service then it should be a
“shared power” between the federal and regional levels.
He
further said that all residual or unclassified powers will be retained by the
federal government but may also be delegated to the regional governments.
"We
will pursue the principle that the budget will follow the division of
powers," said Pimentel, pointing out that at present 83 percent of the
total government expenditures are controlled by the national government and
only 17 percent by the local governments.
