The Kilos Pederal sa Pagbabago is now conducting an information dissemination to educate the public on the process of Federalism and how it will affect the socioeconomic system of the Philippines upon its implementation.
Guesting during the Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Davao on Monday, KPP Vice Chairman Atty. Randolph Parcasio said that a primer on federalism has already been made, but is yet to be translated into different major dialects around the country.
KPP disclosed its plan to have Cebuano and Ilonggo translations of the primer being the spoken dialect in the Visayas region and South Central Mindanao.
“We have written it in Tagalog and this will be translated into Cebuano and to all major languages in the country,” Parcasio said.
Parcasio added that the module contains some of the basic structures of Federalism such as the scope of its powers, system, the area covered by the regional states to be formed, as well as their functions.
“In our case, we focus on the substance, what would be the powers of national government, if we create federal state or we call it regional state so as not to confuse with national government, what would be its power and what powers will they share, so we have zero-in on that for the people to understand,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ma. Marilyn Rojas, also a member of KPP, said a “Question and Answer” portion of the primer written in Filipino would allow the people, especially the students to easily grasp the basic concepts of Federalism.
“We are expecting that young voters, the students, the youth and the elders who can still vote can easily understand this primer in Filipino,” Rojas said.
Parcasio stressed KPP is pushing for the establishment of special regions before the execution of Federalism. This is for the regional states to have jurisdiction over matters affecting indigenous people (IP) and Bangsamoro people.
“Cordillera Autonomous Region and ARMM (Autonomous Region on Muslim Mindanao) should be enacted before the establishment of regional states so that the law governing these states will be embedded on Federalsim,” said Parcasio.
KPP has been pushing for five regional states namely, Northern Luzon, Metro Manila, CaLaBaRZon to the Bicol Region, the entire Visayas, and MinSuPaLa (Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan). According to Parcasio, the division was based on cultural features, geographic location, and economic potential.
He pointed out that under a federal system, regional states have the power to legislate and execute programs and authority over areas such as health, education, labor and employment, tourism, science and technology, social welfare, ancestral rights and cultural heritage including ancestral lands and ancestral domains, sports development, transportation, and communication.
At present, KPP is attending to various invitations around the country to discuss matters concerning Federalism. The group is also coming up with a complete proposal to “help the senate and the congress” by facilitating the information needed by the legislators upon the actual hearing on the proposed form of government.
