President Duterte’s economic team has been urged to lower its moorings closer to reality by balancing its objectives with the demands of federalism “which is the President’s reason for being.”
“Federalism as the mother of the all changes was the platform that propelled Duterte to the presidency,” said Architect Florencio “Chito” Gavino. “Hence it cannot be divorced from planning and finance.”
Gavino is consultant to the Davao-based People’s RevGov for Real Democracy and the Kilos Pederal sa Pagbabago and is regarded as one of the Mindanao’s original advocates for federalism.
Gavino has lauded the economic team of President Duterte, headed by Finance Secretary Carlos T. Dominguez for scoring the Con-Com’s draft for 18 regional regions ‘that is poised to wreak havoc on the economy.’
On the costs-benefits ratio of federalism, he said that the costs of federalism are huge but the benefits will be much bigger.
He stressed that the real problems are not the costs of going federal but of huge corruption, tax evasion and inefficiency.
He asked: “Who said that bringing the government close to the people is cheap? Who said that self-determination is cheap? Who said that installing an effective and efficient governance is cheap? Who said that saving our nation from the secession of Mindanao is cheap? Who said that federalism is cheap?”
He pointed out that the economic team has also expressed support to federalism but failed short of factoring federalism and its costs-benefit ratio in its development plans and program.
“The team did not accommodate Federalism in its ‘Build,Build, Build’ infrastructure program,” he said, adding that the team should balance political realities for the sake of the President’s legacy to the Filipino people.
He said the economic team should realize that without federalism, President Duterte will fail.
He said that based on report, the Department of Finance estimated that a hefty P1.651 trillion is needed to comply with the draft federal charter’s 50-50 revenue sharing with the proposed federal regions—the basis for the team’s ‘wreaking havoc to the economy’ statement.
Gavino said that with the 18 weak proposed regions, the statement is correct as each region is poised to receive P90.2 billion allotment.
But with the six regions proposed by the People’s RevGov for Real Democracy, each region will receive six times the amount or P100 billion.
“Surely this will not wreak the economy but will further enhance our global competitiveness,” he said. “Politics is compromise. Pag talagang gusto, may paraan. Kaya natin ito.” (JKL)
