ALAWMAKER on Sunday said a federalist system of government will boost industrial and agricultural development in the provinces.
In pushing for federalism, Rep. Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said in a statement one key factor in ensuring that economic growth reaches the countryside is to shift to a federal system of government.
Villafuerte said the Philippines’s current unitary or presidential government is the single biggest impediment to industrial and agricultural development in the provinces, as our current centralized system only perpetuates the concentration of wealth in so-called Imperial Manila even amid the Philippines’s high-growth streak.
“Successive credit-rating upgrades by international agencies and a high GDP-growth rate of 6.9 percent in the first quarter are meaningless to millions of families in the regions who haven’t felt the tangible benefits of our fast-expanding economy,” said Villafuerte, a three-term Camarines Sur governor from 2004 to 2013.
In the current presidential government, all funds are centralized in the National Capital Region and provinces need to remit their income to the National Treasury. Federalism means autonomy in government rules per province with independent taxation and economic system.
However, under the federal form of government, provinces will no longer remit their income to the national treasury, but they are required to give a percentage of their income to the national government. A new Constitution is also needed if federalism will push through.
“The concentration of national wealth remains in Imperial Manila with 35 percent of the national budget going to the National Capital Region, even if it represents only 14 percent of the Philippine population,” the lawmaker said, citing 2015 government data.
Villafuerte said the 2015 national budget was P2.6 trillion, of which P898 billion was allocated to the national capital and central offices and the balance of P982 billion was divided among the other regions.
He said this uneven distribution of the national wealth has failed to improve living standards in the countryside, as validated by a study showing high poverty-incidence ratios in regions with lower shares of the national budget.
Earlier, Villafuerte introduced two complementary bills in the 17th Congress designed to postpone by four months the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to February next year and to hold this political exercise simultaneously with the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention (Con-con) that would rewrite the 1987 Charter.
Last week the lawmaker filed House Bill (HB) 1290 seeking to reset the country’s next polls from October 31 this year to February 27, 2017, and HB 1241 calling for the election of Con-con delegates, also on February 27.
“Aside from saving as high as P6 billion in poll-related expenses by holding three elections all at the same time next February, the postponement of the October barangay and SK elections would give ‘a lot of breathing space’ to Commission on Elections [Comelec] officials and employees, teachers and all others who were involved in the May 9 polls, as well as to all Filipinos voters themselves,” he said.
Also, the lawmaker said “considering the strong clamor for amendment or revision to the Constitution through a Constitutional Convention as allowed in Article 17 of the 1987 Constitution, it will be more practical and economical for the government to hold the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections simultaneously with the election of the delegates to the convention.”
He said under a federal system, local government units (LGUs) would be able to retain a huge chunk of their respective incomes and turn over only a portion to the federal government.
“Federalism will redistribute the national wealth outside Metro Manila, where our natural resources abound,” Villafuerte said. “This setup will lead to genuine industrial and agricultural growth because LGUs would have more power in managing their funds and resources, instead of merely waiting for so-called Imperial Manila to give the go-signal on how to spend their share of government revenues.”
With the central governing authority in a federal system having control only over national concerns, like national defense and security, foreign policy, currency and monetary issues, he said provinces and cities will have more powers, because they will assume primary responsibilities over the development of their respective industries, education and health services, agriculture and fisheries, and local peace and order, among others, with minimal or no interference from the national government.