Why Federalism is good for the country

I'm sure you folks with satellite television have seen the great tourism advertisement of Malaysia… claiming to be "Truly Asia." Well, I just read a full-page ad in the national papers of another Malaysian advertisement en-titled, "Flora Fest 2007" Colours of Harmony, which will be held from Jan.20 to Feb.4, 2007. Malaysia is giving flowers top billing in their tourism industry and we can only sigh with envy that we cannot have such an event simply because the only time we buy flowers in this country is during Valentines Day, All Saint's and All Soul's Day or kalag-kalag.

It is for this reason why we wrote about coming up with a year-long beautification program for Cebu, putting landscaping and flower arrangements on all major thoroughfares and giving jobs to the people who live in the mountains of Cebu. When all of this comes to bloom, then Cebu can have its own Flower Festival like Malaysia is doing.

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It is the Year 2007, an election year and since the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) always dip their fingers on things political, I hope that for this year, they would do something proactive. By this, I mean that whenever major issues come into play, often the CBCP comes out with statements as if they had a final say on the issue. I would like to look forward to a CBCP to issue statements now, like for instance they can help our people on how to check the performance of political candidates. This is something positive that we expect our church leaders to do rather than wait for the nth moment when it is already too late.

During her State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) declared, "Let the debate on charter changes begin!" So far what we've seen were guile attempts to push for charter changes (cha-cha) without any debate as to what kind or system of government we ought to have. House Speaker Jose de Venecia only had one single thought in mind, a shift to a Parliamentary system, which most Filipinos refuse to accept because it would put too much power in a fused Executive and Legislative Branches of government without any checks or balances.

But what does the CBCP have to say about this? Surely they should give the Filipinos certain suggestions as to what is good for our country? Of course, this opens them up to stinging questions about what they know about politics given the kind of political hierarchy the Catholic Church has in its 2,000-year history. The problem really is that, the CBCP should seek proper advice, not necessarily from politicians, but from the academe or business groups as to what kind of government would be more responsive to the needs of the Filipino people as a diverse culture.

Our group, Save our Languages through Federalism (Solfed) has come up with its full support for a Federal form of government, which is embodied in our name. Here's an excerpt of the Solfed statement. "More than half of the world's inhabited land area is now Federal. After the age of nationalistic centralism and uniformity of the 1800s and first half of the 1900s, Unitarian countries have slowly and surely been shifting to Federalism. The advantages are tremendous. Multiethnic countries are able to respect and preserve the diversity if their peoples' cultures. Federal countries have always become more economically prosperous and politically stable compared to neighbors who have remained Unitarian.

Being able to retain the fruits of their labors in the Federal system, local states have always been happy to labor more and improve their individual economy, instead of relying on dole-outs, centralized orders, and policies from above. Innovativeness and initiative are maximized. Centralized decision over-load, stifling central control, and center-based patronage politics are minimized. There has never been a successful coup d'état in a Federal country in human history, and would be power grabbers find out that there is no well-defined center to grab power from.

Graft and corruption, while always present in all human societies, are more easily checked, as ordinary citizens have more access to those in positions of political and economic power. At present, Federalism is the closest workable system we have to participative democracy." Please don't take the word of Solfed alone, check this out yourself so you will know what really is going on throughout the rest of the world. But if you found that that the Solfed statement is correct, then by all means, you should bat for the shift to a Federal form of government. This is the challenge we pose to the CBCP and we hope that we are not addressing a blank wall, much like what happens when we address our government.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit's columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com