Rizal: The Federalist “The islands will adopt probably a federal republic.’ Dr. Jose Rizal put this idea forward in The Philippines a Century Hence, deemed Rizal's most prescient essay for a number of predictions he boldly made, most of which came to pass. But this one is yet to happen. After winning our independence from Spain, we had to face yet another foreign power, the United States. War against the new enemy and our subsequent second colonization derailed us from developing a constitutional government of our choice. For more than a century after the essay was written, we have gone through five centralized unitary republics, including the present one. So far, none of them has served the Philippines to the full satisfaction of all Filipinos. It seems that the time has come for us to ask ourselves whether we could have done better if we heeded Rizal's notion. Unfortunately, Rizal left no detailed reasons for his call for a federal republic. Nevertheless, Emilio Aguinaldo pursued the idea. Writes the historian O.D. Corpuz: During the Revolution, of course the fight for independence was fought from Ilocos, Pangasinan and Pampanga to the Tagalog Provinces to Bicol, and from Samar and Leyte to Cebu Panay and Negros. Aguinaldo directed the Ilonggos to set up