FEDERALISM VS.

UNITARY
SYSTEM: AN EXISTENTIAL
DEBATE IN THE PHILIPPINE
CONTEXT

By

TABING KEISHIA
(DGHT5F)
 I. Introduction

The Philippines is an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia. It’s unique demographic structure, as
well as rich history, gives way to the kind of political and governmental system it has today. With over 7,000
inhabited islands that comprise the country’s make up, therein lies a unique mindset that clashes with the
already-established structure of government.

This essay, intending to discuss the main differences between a unitary state and a federalist state, seeks to
apply this debate into a realistic setting, as the Philippines has been a unitary state for over a century, and yet has
been bowled over many times through the course of its history as a sovereign state with federalist ideas and
tendencies.

As a brief summary, the Philippines has a unitary system with special characteristics; on the one hand, it has
a highly-centralized government located in the northern mainland in Manila, the country’s capital. On the other
hand, the country is also divided into 17 regions, each having their own respective local government units (or
LGUs) that handle executive and administrative tasks for that region. Although it is a unitary state, it has, time
and time again, tried to entertain federalist tendencies specifically when trying the concept of ‘devolution’, or
delegating administrative functions and responsibilities to other local units for the purpose of efficiency – much
like the concept of subsidiarity in the European Union. Simply put, the Philippines has been continually
decentralizing power since the 1980s (Smoke, 2005) .

However, the concept doesn’t seem to translate as well from theory to reality. What happens is that,
although there are some specific executive and administrative functions that are relegated to these Local
Government Units in the provinces, there is still a prioritization and a hierarchy of powers that has to be
followed, with the national government in Manila taking top spot. This then complicates the whole bureaucratic
process even further, and drags down the efficiency of these local government units while shifting the weight of
importance and development to Manila.

Because of this phenomenon, there are many insurgent communities like the nationalist fronts and separatist
groups that sympathize with the idea of a federalist state as having a much better effect on developing the nation
as a whole, by legitimizing the power that is given to these local government units. But to do so will need an
extensive constitutional overhaul, as well as preparing the country for any side-effects that a change in the
national system could produce. This essay will discuss the pros and cons of such a change and the implications it
can have.

II. Background on the Philippines

On June 12, 2019, the Philippines celebrated its sovereignty as this year marks 121 years after gaining
independence from Spanish colonizers. It marks not only important cultural and nationalistic images such as the
flying of the Philippine flag and the first playthrough of the Independence March as the National Anthem, but it
also finalized the hopes and dreams of Philippine insurgents and revolutionaries for a nation they can call their
own.

The Philippines has had an extensive background, most of it revolving around geopolitics or having its
geography be in a central role. Because of the country’s vast wealth when it comes to natural resources, the
dense jungles and varied flora and fauna, the country became a hotspot for traders – from the Chinese merchants
in the north with their porcelain and silk, to the Sultanates in the South and the West, who bore upon the
different tribes in the Philippines spices and pottery. In exchange, these merchants received the rich and
colourful textures woven from natural materials like abaca, cotton fiber or piña fiber (some likening it to the jusi
fiber of Indonesia).

The first settlers in the Philippines were separated and cloistered into tribes, ruled over by sultans (primarily
in the south) and war chiefs in other parts of the country. Because of these tribal tendencies, these different social
groups developed different sets of cultural values, including pre-historic industrial specialization (for example,
those near the sea specialized in colourful vinta boats with large sails, spear-fishing on wooden stilts above the
water) and languages and the subsequent dialects thereafter.

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 This ethnolinguistic differences from each chiefdom were only exacerbated more when the first colonialists
came. Ferdinand Magellan, famed Portuguese explorer for the Spanish king, was the first colonial man to set
foot in Philippine shores, and was amazed at the rich culture and the abundance of precious metals and spices
and resources in the chiefdom of Cebu. He was promptly killed after trying to usurp the neighboring chiefs into
subservience to Catholicism as part of the 3 G’s colonialist initiative (God, Gold, and Glory), and the chieftain
that killed him – Lapu-Lapu – is usually heralded as the first ever Philippine hero, as Magellan’s death stopped
any other colonialists from trying to circumnavigate the world to land in the islands again for the next 50 years.

However, the Spanish colonizers have more or less succeeded to colonize two-thirds of the country (the
Southern mainland were defended, and thus developed on a different level and scale than the parts of the country
that were colonized). They occupied and ruled the land for 333 years, and in those three centuries harmonized
development and industries between regions and provinces. However, because of the class struggle, the Spanish
language wasn’t taught fully to the masses, and therefore the differing languages between regions lingered and
stayed, as Spanish was only used in the administrative sense, in official documents and as the language in the
meeting room, which was predominantly occupied by full-blooded Spaniards or those of Spaniard parents.

After a successful revolution against the Spaniards, the country’s sovereignty was declared on the 12 th of
June, 1898, thereby making the Philippines the earliest constitutional republic in Asia. However, when the
Americans came and defeated them in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines was like property, and the
Treaty in Paris the transaction hand-off after a bogus American sacking of Intramuros, the last Spanish
stronghold in Manila. English was taught in a widespread scale, and education was more accessible; but even
then, the demographic and ethnolinguistic separations from the Spanish colonization period remained.

The notion of a “one-nation, one state” has been emphasized time and time again to try and rally the whole
country against notable colonizers like the Spanish, the American, and later on the Japanese during World War
II. But this sentiment is primarily hinged on the notion that Manila is the centrepiece, the kingpin among all
other provinces and regions. Even the decision to choose a national language was a point of contention between
linguistic groups; of the 175 ethnolinguistic nations in the Philippines, Tagalog was chosen as the de facto basis
for Filipino, the national language to be taught in standardized means in schools across the country. Apart from
them being the largest ethnolinguistic group as of today (comprising 28% of the country’s population of more
than 100 million), it is also the ethnolinguistic nation that includes the central cities like Manila.

III. The Philippines in the present

From the Americans, our current form of unitary government was established, with a President, a Vice-
President, and a bicameral Congress consisting of the Lower (House of Representatives) and the Upper (Senate)
House. There are three branches of government – executive, legislative, and judiciary – and different ministries
(called Departments) headed by a Secretary and an Undersecretary appointed by the President him/herself.

Since the declaration of independence in 1898, there have been sixteen Presidents – fourteen men, and two
women – none of them having been re-elected twice. Prior to the 1987 Constitution which is the current version
being followed by the country today, Presidential terms were modelled after the American standards, with a
period of four years with a possibility of re-election. But after the new Constitution was adopted, the Presidential
term now lasts for six years without a chance of re-election for life. Some presidents have been in power for
more than the years prescribed in the Constitution – for example, President Garcia assumed position after
President Magsaysay died in a plane accident; President Arroyo took over after President Estrada was more or
less impeached; and President Marcos, infamous in history books as a dictator that brought forth a bloody
Martial Law, stayed for at least 14 years in power before a revolution and his exile.

This focus on Presidents, however, is connected with the ethnolinguistic splits and the dynamics of different
regions and provinces – because 15 out of 16 of these Presidents hail from Manila. Some of the Presidents may
have been from powerful, “old rich” families from the provinces especially in the Visayas regions, but all of
them were educated, lived, and practiced in Manila. Only the most recent president – President Rodrigo Duterte
– hails from the city of Davao in Mindanao, the southernmost mainland in the country. With a culture drastically
different from that of imperial Manila, his mannerisms and speech syntax can be easily misunderstood by the
public.

President Duterte was a lawyer in his early years before he served as mayor of Davao for two decades, and
was equal parts famous and infamous for his strategy in implementing peace and safety in his city. A so-called
“Davao Death Squad” or DDS is said to roam the streets, wrangling up petty criminals and instilling fear into the

3
public for discipline to be enforced. Most residents in the city applaud him for this, while outsiders question the
legitimacy of this hearsay, aside from the fact that the encouragement of direct violence and vigilantism is
questionable from a human rights standpoint.

One of his campaign promises when he entered the presidential race in 2016 stemmed from the federalist
ideas, because these sentiments resonated more clearly with those who were decidedly not influenced by the glitz
and glamor of the capital. Hailing from the southern mainland and having a completely different worldview on
how to run the country became one of the main pillars of his electoral campaign. His promise of changing the
country’s make-up from a unitary state to a federalist one were received effectively with the masses, as proven
by his victory in May 2016.

It has been nearly four years since President Duterte has assumed office, but the road to changing the
country to a federalist state is slow-going at best. Apart from other, more pressing issues that President Duterte
promised (and currently failing) to quell, such as the drugs problem, mass illegal migration of Chinese workers,
and transportation and infrastructure shortcomings. Since then, the debate for the benefit of a shift to federalism
has been ongoing.

IV. Shift to federalism

According to Lagonoy (2018), “[Federalism] is a form of government where sovereignty is constitutionally

shared between a central governing authority and constituent political units called states or regions.” Simply
put, there is a relationship between these constituent political units or local government units and the central
or national government.

In a federalist system, the regions have their own local government that directly governs the subsequent
area, kind of like an autonomous region. These local government units, then, are responsible for
administrative, executive, and legislative tasks that concern that specific region only. Much like the concept
of subsidiarity, wherein decisions are made in the lowest, most local level of governance as possible. In a
federal system of state, these regions run with a level of independence in their regional affairs that is
separate from the powers of the central government, which jurisdiction concerns national affairs and those
issues that are considered as common denominators with all other regions. Such examples include
harmonization in trade and economics, as well as security and border control.

Even before the onset of the 1987 Constitution, the Philippines has tried to shift the burden of
governmental administration to local units, recognizing the primary reason was the lengthy bureaucratic
process that creates delay after delay. Some of the government’s efforts include the Decentralization Act of
1967, the 1983 Local Government Code, as well as the current Constitution (Buendia, 1989). In a sense, the
Philippine administration recognized the unique situation that the country is in, with its widely varied
regions with needs of different levels. And with the physical distance between the regions separated by both
natural land formations and seas, the establishment of smaller units of government seemed feasible and
more efficient.

However, this theory only works there – in theory. The reality of the situation is that the imperialistic
mindset of having everything revolve around Manila still persists, no matter the effort of devolution or
dispersing responsibilities to local government units. There’s a limit to what these local government units
can do, and at some point these units exhaust their jurisdiction. With hands ties behind their backs, they
have no other choice but to await the decision from the central regions in Manila. Basically, what happens is
that the bureaucratic process just got much longer and much more convoluted.

Shifting the Philippines towards a federal system instead of a unitary system has lots of pros and
advantages. Primary of these reasons is that is does away with the confusing bureaucracy that local
government units have to endure. With this, it also takes away the burden from the regions in Manila, which
has to deal not only with the internal affairs in that specific region but also the issues in other, far-flung
regions. Because of the level of freedom given to the local government units, the officials now have the
knowledge on what strategy is best to implement in the region to develop, as well as the means to execute
the vision. Instead of waiting for funds and a go-signal from the central government, these units will now
have fiscal and administrative power to oversee regional projects that would help the local industries,
businesses, whatever the government units want to specialize in.

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 But this doesn’t only have an effect on economic matters, but also in cultural matters as well. Because
of the already-established ethnolinguistic borders that separate our demographic populations, the
establishment of these regions merely institutionalize and formalize it. There will now be a clear definition
between two distinctly large ethnolinguistic nations such as the Tagalogs and the Bikolanos, the Chavacanos
and the Bisayas, the Pangasinenses and the Ilokanos. And because these distinctions are now under control
of a much more powerful regional governmental units, the culture’s preservation could be focused on more.
Gone would be the universal efforts that only seek to provide the bare minimum to each and every
ethnolinguistic group for cultural preservation; local officials and administrative units could dictate what
exactly to preserve and how, be it the imposition of cultural days specific only to that ethnic group, the
education of this specific language apart from the two national languages of Filipino and English, et cetera.

However, there are also cons and disadvantages with shifting the country towards federalism. Firstly,
it’s a lengthy process to undo. Having 121 years of being a unitary system takes ages to undo, primarily
because of the political and social culture and mentality that surrounds this concept. Even though the
situation is disadvantageous to these other regions that are not in the central Manila area, giving them a
certain amount of unprecedented power the likes of which they haven’t had before could lead to problems
such as power abuse in administrative tasks or a heightened susceptibility to graft and corruption.

Having a federalist state also has a dire effect with the local businesses and private consumers, as well.
For starters, there’s a chance that the local government units could be manipulated, bought out, or even
taken over by private parties and businesses, which could directly affect the development of industries of
scale on a regional level. There is also the very real possibility of a market competition in between regions
specializing in the same industry; and while competition could be seen as an advantage, the constant need
for innovation could equally spell success and trouble for both regions, as well as its neighbors, or other
regions who aren’t able to keep up or even develop an industry in the very first place.

But the most damning thing that hinders the shift to federalism is the laws in place itself. Creating
federalist regions would more or less need to have a redefinition of regional lines and areas, not simply
depending on the ethnolinguistic demography of that certain region. In the Philippines, some regions even
include islands that are separated by seas, and so that would have disadvantage when that specific region
receives the same level of authority as a region that is snugly situated in the mainland. This redistribution
and reconfiguration of the country’s regions would need to be made in hefty constitutional changes, which is
already hard enough to do.

Then there is also the case that the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the
Malacañang Palace (the residency of the President) are all located in the Metro Manila area, with most of
the members hailing from or educated mostly in the capital. It stands to reason that imperial Manila would
not willingly give away power to relegate to other regions so easily. They would be the forefront of the
opposition, as is what happened when the debates of Cha-Cha (short for ‘Charter Change’, or the movement
for making changes in the 1987 Constitution) would rear.

V. Bangsamoro Autonomous Region

However, there are some case studies that people could use as a justification that a shift to federalism
would not only be successful, but also act as the spark for development for the other regions in the country
that are considered to be ‘left behind’ by the pace of development of Manila. One of these is the
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, which was created with the ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law in
2018.

The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao or ARMM was created and established in 1989 to try
and put under control the different groups that were vying for autonomy from the central government. These
sentiments were primarily fuelled by centuries-long oppression and discrimination during the colonial
periods of the country, which they believe have been continued by the central government based in Manila,
leading to regular instances of unsatisfactory performance from the local government. ARMM was also
primarily created as a decentralization experiment of President Cory Aquino to try and provide for the needs
of a specific region with a majority Muslim population (as the country is predominantly Roman Catholic).

The basic structure of a normal region in the Philippines is that these local government units coordinate
with the central government in Manila through the networks and regional offices of different departments,

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primarily the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). However, with the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region, it is different.

Under the Bangsamoro Basic Law or BBL, the region will have a singular parliamentary democratic
government, with two heads: the first being the actual Head of the Bangsamoro government called the
“Chief Minister”, and another leader who is symbolic in nature called the “Wali”. Compared to the
bicameral nature of the Philippine Congress, the Bangsamoro has a Parliament that seeks to represent all
ethnic minorities and party candidates. Also to be established is a judiciary branch that adheres to the sharia
law followed by Muslims, and plans to build a Sharia High Court and appellate courts are present in the
region.

One of the more enduring reasons for the granting of autonomous level to the region is because of the
threat of separatists and nationalists, plus the social and economic instability these insurgents bring to the
region. Some other equally important issues that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region seeks to solve is the
reduction of the bureaucratic process when it comes to access to the national funds for regional
development. Instead, the region will have its own budget pre-approved by the national congress, which will
be in full control of the Bangsamoro government for their disposal. All decisions by the Bangsamoro
government would still need to be checked by the central, national government and cross-check it with the
1987 Constitution to make sure nothing is out of place, but apart from that the Bangsamoro Autonomous
Region has a level of independence from the central government that most other regions do not have.

Although this sounds like a good balance between the movement for federalism and the status quo of a
unitary system, the reality of it is quite unsure. The very fact that the ARMM was made in the 1980s and
still failed as an autonomous region to the point that discussions for another, better guidelines for
autonomous regions in the form of the Basic Bangsamoro Law speak volumes on just how badly theory is
translated into reality. Who’s to say that it won’t happen again?

And since the Bangsamoro Basic Law is still quite new, having only been ratified last year, there is a
sense of uncertainty with how the ideal Bangsamoro government will behave or use its powers for the
benefit of the region. Of course, people would expect for the best, but secretly would be preparing for the
worst as they stay disillusioned at the effects of public offices.

VI. Conclusion

In conclusion, the Philippines could become effective as a federal state. Its unique archipelagic
geography and multi-faceted cultural demography seems to be the perfect rationale for a country to sway to
a more federalist tune. However, with history and political culture deeply ingrained in the unitary system
inherited from colonizers of the past, it now becomes a gamble on how effective the shift would be upon the
start of the rotation.

There are, of course, some good arguments for both pros and cons camps, but the problem lies primarily
with the people. The political behavior of a certain ethnolinguistic or ethnic group is tied at the hip with its
culture, so the results of a federalist shift could vary greatly from region to region. It could help boost the
development of an industry or create a market vacuum elsewhere.

Then there is also the question if the whole effort would be worth picking apart the 1987 Constitution,
or have it redone to have all the changes codified. But since there are other, more pressing issues in the
national scale, it’s highly likely that President Duterte has had to put this question aside to prioritize other
social issues. Until then, the question of a federalist Philippines stays a question, with the results only
informed guesses from experts and political strategists.

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 VII. Bibliography

Teehankee, Julio C. Regional dimensions of the 2016 general elections in the Philippines: Emerging
contours of federalism.”2018). Regional & Federal Studies, 28(3), 1–12. doi: 10/1080/13597566/2018/1454911

Buendia, Rizal G. The Prospect of Federalism in the Philippines: A Challenge to Political Decentralization
in a Unitary State. (1989). Philippine Journal of Public Administration, 33 (2).

Lagonoy, Glenda B. “Change in the System of Government: Is the Philippines ready?” (n.d.). retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/36534817/Change_in_the_System_of_Government_Is_the_Philippines_ready

Longley, R. (2019, January 28). What is a Unitary State? Retrieved December 5, 2019, from
https://www.thoughtco.com/unitary-state-government-pros-cons-examples-4184826

Smoke, P. (2005). The Rules of the Intergovernmental Game in East Asia: Decentralization Frameworks and
Processes. In The World Bank, East Asia Decentralizes: Making Local Government Work (pp. 25-51).
Washington DC: The World Bank.

Marcelo, V. (2019, January 18). Road to peace in Mindanao: The Bangsamoro Organic Law. Retrieved
December 23, 2019, from CNN Philippines: http://nine.cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/02/11/bangsamoro-basic-
law-bbl- timeline.html

Holmes, K. (2018, February 17). The Bangsamoro Basic Law: Impacts of Additional Autonomy in the
Philippines’ Muslim South. Retrieved Dec 22, 2019, from The McGill International Review:
https://www.mironline.ca/bangsamoro-basic-law-impacts-additional-autonomy-philippines-muslim-south