President Duterte’s federalism team has been urged to adopt a manual crafted by the Davao-based Kilos Pederal sa Pagbago on how to bring about the federalization of the Philippines.
The KPP is chaired by former Davao City councilor Aristeo Vicente Albay.
The KPP, said its consultant Architect Florencio ‘Chito’ Gavino should be able to help the government shift to a federal system.
“Davao City is the lion’s den of federalism,” he said. “For the Malacanang Inter-Agency Task Force information campaign to do its job effectively, it should come to Davao where the proposed shift to federalism started,” he said.
He said KPP’s well-drafted federalism constitution is what the country badly needs.
“Right off the bat in 2016, the KPP has warned to do it right or else we might create more problems than we intend to solve,” said KPP consultant Architect Florencio “Chito” Gavino.
He said copies of the KPP roadmap and module were submitted to the office of President Duterte with the suggestion that the president’s economic team must study the fiscal and economic aspect of going federal.
“Obviously this did not happen, hence the current confusion over federalism,” said Gavino.
Entitled ‘How to federalize the Philippines,’ the manual spelled out step by step the procedure in shifting towards a federal system.
He lamented that although each member of the Constitutional Committee were given a copy, it was mostly ignored.
Gavino said that in fairness, the Con-Com did a good job in several areas. “But sad to say it miserably flopped in the areas of number of federated regions, governmental power distribution, fiscal provision, administration and information and education campaign.”
But he said it is not over yet. “Let us regroup in Davao City, re-plan our strategies together and go back to the battlefield wiser and refreshed,” he said.
He reminded those who wanted change, that ‘Federalism as the mother of the all changes’ was the platform that propelled Duterte to the presidency. (JKL)
