MANILA – Is the Philippines economically ready for a federal government? Sen. Risa Hontiveros is worried that it is not.
She urged President Rodrigo Duterte not to railroad the shift to federal government, what with many questions and issues that need to be addressed.
“I am worried that his federalist vision is not even economically viable and practical in the first place,” Hontiveros said on Tuesday.
Redistributing wealth across regions might only make them poorer and their economies weaker, she said.
Only five of the proposed 16 federated regions are relatively ready for federalism, Hontiveros said, citing the Readiness Index for Sustained Economies under Federalism.
“Did the government take this into consideration in the drafting of the Federal Charter? Were the country’s economic managers consulted? Has the economic cost of federalism been studied alongside the impact of inflation and the current state of the economy?” she said.
Economic managers themselves are “wary” of the Duterte administration’s plan to amend the Charter, claimed the senator.
Budget secretary Benjamin Diokno warned that it could easily double the government’s budget deficit to 6 percent from around 3 percent, she said.
Socioeconomic Planning secretary Ernesto Pernia meanwhile was cool to the plan because many regions cannot stand on their own financially, she added.
“Ang pederalismo ni Pangulong Duterte ay hindi lamang salat sa demokrasya, sablay pa sa ekonomiya,” said Hontiveros.
A federal government, the senator said, should be one “in which accountabilities are clear and decentralized, and government institutions and economic development are made more accessible and brought closer to citizens.”
“Unfortunately,” she said, “this is not the President’s federalism.”
Another opposition senator, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, believes the Senate will not allow any haphazard Charter amendment.
It has been reported that the joint session for the State of the Nation Address this year might be used to convene a constituent assembly that will revise the 1987 Constitution.
“I doubt that any senator, opposition or administration, will allow a bastardization of the constitutionally mandated process,” Aquino said./PN
