Federalism is a system of government in which the same territory is governed or

controlled by two levels of government. Mainly, the central or national government and

the regional or state government. The national government, being the first level, aims

towards national and international governance. The focus will be on how to manage

each state on a national level and inter-state relationships. Examples of this are national

state policies which the state governments must follow as a guide to implement their

own state laws; and national government making agreements and treaties of other

nations.

Decentralization is the process of distributing decision-making, planning and

governance from a central authority to local groups or authorities. This means that each

local authorities will be efficient in governance within their own respective territories

since they have firsthand knowledge of such matters. Still the national government

holds certain powers over them.

We used to be in favor of the federal system of government in the Philippines but

now, it is a worry for the long-term consequences that federalism carries that might

accelerate the demise of our country. Because of that, we categorically oppose any

attempts to implement federalism under the current proposal that emulates its

framework of the America. Don’t get me wrong. Proponents of a federal Philippines

have a noble goal of spurring economic growth and development in the underdeveloped

and impoverished provinces. In other words, fundamentally, their rationale of federalism

is to spread capital investment typically concentrated around the metro cities of our

country. This forces many from the province to emigrate to the cities for employment,

which explains the overpopulation and horrendous traffic of this major cities. However,
the political consequences of federalism are miserable, because it has another

fundamental feature that makes it appealing to the provinces, the greater political

autonomy. While the federal government still makes the decisions most of the time, a

higher degree of power is delegated to the federated provinces and that means that

through federalism, the province has more power to enjoy a greater degree of political

autonomy and power.

There are some advantages and disadvantages in federalism. Some of the

advantages are the following:

1. Responsiveness. A national government is more responsive and can convey

essential labor and products with ideal productivity and viability.

2. Revenue generation. LGUs can plan for its own growth and generate revenue

to be used within its territory, where they won’t rely solely on IRA.

3. Internal Policies. Formulating policies within a state government will be more

inclined towards the ethics, local needs, opinions and cultures of the

community within its territory.

4. Optimum utilization of resources. The national government will focus more on

international matters and defense of the country while the state governments’

focus is growth within its own territory.

Some of the disadvantages of federalism are the following:

1. Costly. The change of constitution requires money whether using

Constitutional Convention or People’s Initiative. Supposing there is a change

to federalism, the cost of maintaining each state will break the Philippine bank

because of the diverse and unequal income of each state. The different
 regions of the Philippines display different revenue per year, where most

regions may regress more instead of progressing.

2. Location. The country is an archipelago, which means cities and provinces

are located on separate islands and separated by bodies of water. Dividing

them into state governments is a challenge. Just like with the unitary system,

federalism may also lead to unequal development among states. The main

criteria here will be grouping those nearest to one another into one state.

Supposing there is an ideal grouping, the governance will still be hindered

since no bridges are connecting the islands.

3. Budget. Local governments, expected to act entrepreneurial and be bold in

developing their communities, still depend on "allotments" to fund their

operations rather than generating their own resources. Lack of resources and

capabilities at the local level and the inability of local institutions to cope with

the demands of a decentralized set-up can be blamed for this. There can be a

rebellion by a regional government against the national government too if the

its province will be down. Both scenarios pose a threat to the country's

integrity.

4. Distribution. Another issue is the income generation of those islands. There

are groups of islands near to each other but the revenue is not enough to be

compared to one city. Under a federal system, the richer states of the north

will have even more resources to enhance their competitiveness, thus

deepening the developmental gap with other southern regions which can also

lead to inequality between the states and lead to unhealthy competition and
 rivalry between them because in federalism it is very difficult for the poor

region to excel because they only rely on their cut from the budget of the

federalize state while the richer states will only boost its economy for bigger

budget will come in their states. That is also why it is important that the local

government should not only be dependent on its Internal Revenue Allocation

and they must find ways to gain other source of income. Also, natural

resources, industries, employment opportunities differ from region to region.

Hence earnings and wealth are unevenly distributed. Rich states offer more

opportunities and benefits to its citizens than poor states can. Thus, the gap

between rich and poor states widens.

5. There can be overlapping of work and subsequent confusion regarding who is

responsible for what because of the decentralization of the central

government and having its central governments offices on every states. By

having many states and each state has its own policies, it can lead to

duplication of government and inefficient, over-lapping or contradictory

making of policies in different parts of the country.

6. Federalism can lead to over-government that will eventually result to

corruption because of the too many elected representatives with overlapping

roles because of the decentralization and it is very difficult not to put the

decentralize agencies on the new state

7. Other matters. The change into federalism form of government is the least

pressing matter in the country. What should be the focus is the education,

economy and stability of the country.

 Federalism can make the state governments selfish and concerned only about

their own region's progress for they are only focus on its individual region. They can

formulate policies which might be harmful to other regions for they have the authority to

do so as long as it complies on the national law. For example, pollution from a province

which is promoting industrialization in a big way can affect another region which

depends solely on agriculture and cause crop damage. It is also said that federal

system of government is very expensive as more people are elected to office, both at

the state and the center, than necessary. Thus, it is often said that only rich countries

can afford it. Federalism, for most people, is seen to be a solution for regional

aspirations for autonomy and end war and regional disparities, especially in Mindanao.

But for the most part, some groups such as the Moros, want a "separate nation", and

not autonomy. That is why it has a big chance for a civil war because this region has the

capacity and the budget for it.

That is why federalism is a mere reiteration of the current decentralized system,

but changes the government into a semi-presidential/parliamentary-presidential hybrid

system, which has an unclear link to the federalist agenda. The proposal holds good

provisions on political dynasties and a federal system could further strengthen the

power of political dynasties and warlords, which control the Philippines which they are

best positioned to dominate the newly created local legislature and state institutions, fur-

ther consolidating their grip on power in the country's poorer regions.  The proposal im-

proves measures on the challenge of proliferation of political clans by raising the bar up

to second degree of consanguinity. Federalism is also a costly change of government

for it has an additional fiscal burden of adding another layer of bureaucracy to be

around PHP 30 billion to PHP 59 billion annually, depending on number of states, size

of legislative body at state government level, and size of second chamber. If the system

suddenly shifts to federalism, wealthy autonomous regions will tend to develop more

while leaving the others behind. Furthermore, separatists in Mindanao demand their

own country rather than their own region. Considering the fact that federalism still allows

a national government, the probable of achieving peace is not highly probable. Lastly,

without sufficient resources to properly implement this huge structural reform, these ob-

jectives will only be theoretically possible because studies show that only a few regions

are capable of raising enough taxes on their own. The vast majority of provinces, which

will be submerged into new federal states, lack the basic administrative capacity for

generating revenue. Not to mention duplication in taxes and further stress on the

nascent bureaucracy of peripheral regions under a federal arrangement.

In our view, strengthening our local government units is much more viable and ef-

ficient to the current status in the country to perpetuate change and development. With

this view we raise these points:

1. The Internal Revenue Allotment should be increased to provide Local

Government Units more option for its growth and development. The problem

of LGUs is the lack of funds or budget to implement change. At least 15% of

the IRA has been given to LGUs, clearly this is not enough. Thankfully, in the

Mandanas ruling, it has increased the Internal Revenue Allotment or budgets

of local governments by around 50%.

2. Local Government Units are similar to the effects of federalism in that there is

a decentralization of power from the national government to the local

 government units. Instead of creating autonomous state government,

increasing the budget and making policies to enhance the local governments

will be most cost-effective and efficient. By enhancing local government units,

the advantages of having a federalism form of government will still be seen

through them without the need of change of constitution and spending more

money for such change. Issues involving the education, economy and stability

of the country will be given more attention.

Federalism is one vehicle towards decentralization. Decentralization is an

underlying principle behind the structure and power of local governments (provinces,

cities, municipalities, barangays) in the Philippines, but one that has faced much

criticism since its inception. Central to the issue of federalism, therefore, is whether

shifting to that system will be best for local governments and its people in achieving

decentralization from the national government.

The 1987 Constitution already recognizes the need for local autonomy (Sec. 2,

Art. X), but does explicitly provide for the means to achieve this. It did mandate the

creation of a local government code (Sec. 3, Art. X) but did not explicitly provide for how

the division of power and authority is to be made, except that it shall have a “structure

instituted through a system of decentralization.” It would not be in conflict with the

Constitution as it is written to provide for a system of federalism that delineates the

powers of the national and local governments more comprehensively to meet these

constitutional mandates. The unique archipelagic makeup of these islands, breaking up

peoples into different cultural and economic areas, makes federalism a means to

provide an answer for each of the specific problems that may be faced by these
localities. As each region is never like the other, empowering its local government units

to be able to more effectively answer its problems would be best for their people.

The importance of this setup can be seen in light of the current Covd-19

pandemic. The LGUs operate under the direct supervision and control of the national

government’s pandemic response protocols and require express permission, for

example, to go into strict quarantine status when covid-19 cases are on the rise. This

centralization makes it difficult to respond to the situation on the ground as it is

occurring in real time. A more empowered local government in a federal system, with

the ability to create its own specific pandemic response system that best answers

problems it faces, would be able to act accordingly without precious time being wasted

awaiting approval from the national government.

While uniform rules may be made to cover minimum health standards by the

Department of Health, this should not preclude LGUs from being able to enact further

health protocols above and beyond those of the national government. This ability to

respond through an empowered local government that operates with relative autonomy

would be best for people in areas with rising cases, or in areas where cases are going

down and the LGU opens up measures to revitalize local businesses.

Therefore, a change from a unitary to a federal form of government is frowned

upon due to high cost, uneven income and resource distribution, overlapping of work

and policies, high risk of corruption and more. The practical solution of the moment

would be to strengthen local government units as they are also akin to a federal state

that governs its own territory but much more viable and stable.
References:

Anonymous. Federalism for the Philippines: Proposals and Positions

Atty. Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, LL.M. Federalizing Decentralization In The Philippines,

(Melbourne).

Local Government Code of 1991.

Rivera, Lance Angelo J. Federalism As A New Philippine Government System

Section 2 & 3 of Article X of the 1987 Constitution.

www.ilead.ph. Discussion Paper: Is Federalism the Answer to Sectoral Questions?

Decentralization in the Philippines. (2010). <http://www.scribd.com/doc/26605926/%EF

%82%A7-Decentralization-in-the-Philippines-%EF%82%A7-Local>