Local autonomy, federalism, and the BBL

A month ago I was invited to a meeting with Davao Mayor Duterte as the main speaker. As a fellow Danawanon and a family relation, plus my curiosity to hear what he had to say about the BBL and the Muslim issue, I readily showed up. As he had previously pronounced he was for federalism and that if he is ever elected president, (he insisted at that time that he has not yet decided if he will run), he will move to amend the Constitution to have a federal form of government. He believes that this is the only solution to the Muslim problem in Mindanao, as this will give them the local autonomy that will lead to peace in Mindanao. I did ask him the question on what is the difference of his federalism proposal with the Bangsa moro Basic Law, but he did not have the details and the time in that meeting. But in his latest pronouncements, he did in fact express that he is for the BBL.

Federalism and the BBL are just different levels or different degrees of local autonomy, and the whole point of the discussion of the BBL is how much local autonomy are we willing to give to the Muslim areas and what areas should it include. There is the Cordillera Autonomous Region which could be a guide, but not exactly because it was easier to define the area of the CAR, but it should help in the discussion. Malaysia, Indonesia, and some European countries and of course the U.S.A. have federal government structures which we can certainly learn from, but cannot exactly copy because of historical evolution. Most of these countries originated as independent states and federated out of necessity or competitive military and economic advantage. These were originally independent states that were geographically proximate to each other, who found a common cause or a need to form a federation for mutual advantage and strength. So, national defense/military/diplomatic policies, economic/monetary policies were centralized. Local issues were left to the local governments, and the governors and the mayors are powerful and aspire and win national government positions as prime ministers or deputy prime ministers. I met the governor of Bali, Indonesia some time ago, and in a discussion on what industries are allowable in Bali Island, I got the impression that as governor he had the final say on this issue. And the current Indonesian President Joko Widodo was governor of Djakarta before he was elected president.

The cost of running a federal form of government is also an issue, as highlighted by the current disclosure of the BBL getting over P70 billion annually from the national coffers. If we follow the current regional groupings and consider them as states, plus the existing autonomous regions, and maybe some densely populated metropolis, we would have at least 25 states as members of the federation. Each of these states would have a state legislature on top of the existing provincial board and the cities and town councils. Then, of course, the bureaucracy to run all these new offices that will be created will be staffed and paid. Ideally, these additional costs will be the expenses that will be reduced as some of the functions of the national government are transferred to the regional states. This is easier said than done and will not happen, so the cost of running the whole government could easily go up by 25%. If out of the P3 trillion national budget for 2015, P2 trillion is for operations and maintenance and personnel services, federalizing the government will add another P500 billion in expenses. The Philippine economy (GDP) should grow to be over P25 trillion to make this affordable. 

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