The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) of the House of Representatives has said the government should consider the topography, tradition and customs, ethnicity and income of every province in creating states under the proposed federal system of government.
The House leadership, meanwhile, has named the 12 deputy speakers that it sought to designate to simulate a scenario where the country has 12 federal states and test its political viability.
Dr. Romulo Emmanuel M. Miral Jr., director general of the CPBRD, said efficiency and equity should be the primary concern of the government in clustering the provinces under the proposed new system.
“The creation of states should be based on efficiency [including] ethnicity, tradition and culture, topography—like their mountains and seas—which somehow define their economic activities. We should also configure them based on the economic activities, which include trade or exchange of goods and services,” Miral said in an interview with the BusinessMirror.
“The issues about poor and rich or the [economically self-sufficient areas] are different consideration,” he said. Miral said the government should design instruments that would address efficiency and equity separately.
“The efficiency and equity, they are not compatible, but you can actually address them both. But the best way is to design instruments that would address these two objectives separately. So if you want to promote efficiency, then you design a system that would promote efficiency, and if you want to design equity, then you design an instrument that would address equity,” he said.
“The government should see these goals separately, then when they are not able to meet one of the objectives, at least they know what instrument is wrong,” he said.
Miral said the CPBRD has started discussions with lawmakers on the shift to federal form of government, ahead of a study on federalism that it seeks to conduct soon. On Monday Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Congress is now considering the economic-viability combination of provinces in creating states.
Meanwhile, the lower chamber has increased the number of its deputy speakers from five to at least 12 in preparation for the federal form of government.Rep. Bai Sandra Sema of Maguindanao and Rep. Ferdinand Hernandez of North Cotabato completed the list of 12 deputy speakers that also includes Lakas Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga, Nacionalista Party Rep. Pia S. Cayetano of Taguig, PDP-Laban Rep. Gwendolyn F. Garcia of Cebu, PDP-Laban Rep. Mylene Garcia-Albano of Davao City, Rep. Sharon S. Garin of AAMBIS-OWA party-list, Nacionalista Party Rep. Raneo E. Abu of Batangas, PDP-Laban Rep. Eric D. Singson of Ilocos Sur, National Unity Party Rep. Fredenil H. Castro of Capiz, Liberal Party Rep. Romero S. Quimbo of Marikina City and Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Mercedes K. Alvarez of Negros Occidental.
According to House Majority Leader and Party-list Rep. Rodolfo C. Fariñas of PDP-Laban, the lower chamber is trying to divide and group themselves in harmony to the proposed federal states as a way of initially determining their political viability.
“Since the thrust of the Duterte administration is into federalism, we look at the possible creation of states under a federal system of government. So we came up with 12 [deputy speakers]. We will see, or, perhaps, we could try, if it’s viable here in the House. We will divide ourselves into 12 states to see everything,” Fariñas said.
The leadership of the lower chamber is planning to change the country’s form of government from presidential to federal system via constituent assembly (Con-ass).
“Initially, we will have 12 [like] states [from these 12 deputy speakers] under a federal system, among these states are Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Metro Manila or National Capital Region, Southern Tagalog and Bicol, with these we clearly divided the Luzon island,” he added.
“In the Visayas there are three—western, eastern and central—while there are also three in Mindanao—western eastern and central, plus the Bangsamoro. So in total, we have 12 [like states],” Fariñas said.
He said poor regions would not be independent states under the new proposed government. “We have to regroup them [regions] in such a way that there are rich and poor.”