2013-37436

DS 199.1

Marin, Ma. Karla Kristina

Prof. Simbulan

Federalism Paper
Ever since President Duterte started his campaign during elections and even after he won,
the word federalism always come up. He is quite known to be the president who wants to push
for federalism in our country. But first off, what is federalism?
A forum at College of Law in UP Diliman was conducted last September 21, 2016. Its all
about understanding federalism in Philippine context. Its an honor for us to be able to attend this
forum for we were able to listen to different popular and renowned speakers and lawyers that
discussed to us different topics about federalism.
First, federalism was defined by Dr. Temario Rivera as a State in which there is a
constitutionally guaranteed division of powers and competencies between the central government
and the constituent federal units (regions, states, etc.) Dr. Rivera discussed that there are two
historical realities why federal systems emerged. The first one: for theres a need for greater
unity and security by constituent states on the face of serious military threats, especially external
ones and the second one being the need to sustain both the integration and diversification of
polities divided by deep ethnic, religious, linguistic differences, especially when such divisions
assume separatist forms. It is also mentioned in his talk that the six longstanding democracies
in the world with the highest index of linguistic or ethnic diversity are all federal states: India,
Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and the United States. Here in our country, he also said
that there are no pre-existing independent states except for Sulu and Maguindanao where theres
sultanate system.

On the other hand, Dr. Romula Miral Jr., discussed to us the concept of fiscal federalism
and its relevance to our country. He started off with showing us different statistics and graphs
that shows the current situation in our country. He showed us in numbers how highly unequal the
income distribution is in our country, how highly corrupt our country is, how theres billions of
money that is supposed to be spent for the public but keeps on disappearing, how theres a high
poverty incidence in our country while those who are supposed to be in charge of the Filipino
people are bathing in money they got from the public funds. During his discussion, he also
discussed the kind of system Switzerland has and explained to us how it works. To be honest,
when he discussed things about Switzerland, I dont quite understand a lot of stuff anymore. I
think this just shows how serious the topic of federalism is and it shouldnt be taken lightly. Its
not something that can be planned and discussed overnight. Its not something that could be
implemented in our country in a blink of an eye. There are a lot of things to be considered before
implementing this in our country and it takes years to study how effective this system will be
when it is finally implemented in our country. A lot of other speakers attempted to explain to us
what federalism is all about. Like theres different types of federalism, different theories that
comes with each one of those kind of federalism, the difference between autonomy and
federalism, but at the end of their talk, they will all just say that theres no right or wrong kind
and until now, it remains to be unknown what kind of system should be applied to our country.
Because yes, in reality, our country have tried replicating the different development theories of
different countries but we didnt achieve the same result. I think its because our country is
unique in its own way. Every country is, actually. So theres a unique development theory that
can only be applicable to a country and for the Philippines, the search continues for that destined
system that is perfect for our situation.

Afternoon session came and this is by far my favorite part of the forum. My favorite
speakers were Atty. Salma Rasul that discussed about ARMM Autonomy: Policy and Practice
and Atty. Cheryl Daytec-Yangot that discussed about the Perspectives on Indigenous SelfDetermination under a Federal Set Up. I was able to listen to every word that they said on their
discussion and I was able to understand their points because somehow, there are some
development studies components on their discussions.
What I liked about these two speakers is that they didnt just discussed about federalism
but they also discussed about the pressing problems that our country is facing and even asked the
question will federalism solve these? They revealed the problems of our indigenous peoples
and Muslim peoples that are being overlooked by the mainstream media. And of course, in a
patriarchal country like ours, the problems that our women are facing will always be invisible to
the publics eye. And a part of me is glad that they discussed it in this forum.
The problems of our Muslim peoples especially the women were discussed. How Manila
centrism affects the chances of the Muslim people to improve themselves. How there are limited
opportunities given to them and with those limited opportunities, its usually their men who are
able to take those. It is quite an honor for them for our country to have the first Mindanaoan
president because if you look through our history, most of our presidents came from Luzon thats
why most of the matters that are being addressed were only from Luzon and Visayas and
Mindanao are usually being disregarded. They also see the openness of our President to peace
talks as a chance for the Moro people to be heard. That finally their side will finally be
understood and they need not to be antagonized every now and then.
With the issue of Muslim women however, with a high poverty incidence rate in
Mindanao, those who suffer greatly from this are said to be the women and children. Muslim

women are one of those who are greatly oppressed, disregarded and discriminated in our country.
And the speaker discussed these hardships that the Muslim women face. In this Manila-centric
country we have, Muslims are discriminated plus we have a patriarchal society, where women
are always overlooked, Muslim women suffer multiple burdens. And the question is, will
federalism help solve this problem in our country? Is federalism the solution to this kind of
culture that we have? Will it really help?
Atty. Daytec-Yangot discussed the situation of our indigenous peoples who are also one
of the most discriminated and abused group of people in our country. She discussed first, about
the environmental degradation that our country is experiencing and the indigenous peoples are
the ones who are suffering the consequences. She explained to us how the IPs did nothing but to
take good care of our mother nature, and here comes the heavy machinery of foreign countries,
invading the quiet and peaceful life of our forests, mountains and other natural resources, for the
purpose of exploring it, with a consent from our government, exploiting it and leaving it like a
trash. I guess it should be enough that they did that to our natural resources but no, they even
displaced our indigenous peoples and they even resorted to physical abuse, killings and different
kinds of human rights violations that our indigenous peoples never deserved. And are these
violations reported? Of course not! They stayed hidden to the publics eye, and instead the
government just kept the public on the blind side, ignorant from what is happening to our IPs,
and just let them focus on making our IPs an object of ridicule on different entertainment shows
or let the people romanticize about the situations our IPs are in. Take for example, the popularity
of Badjao girl and Carrot Man, where their situations are unheeded and the mainstream media
just concentrated on their physical looks and made them models of clothes (that is also an

objectification of human beings), completely ignoring the fact about the problems our IPs are
facing.
Some people would say Ay meron namang NCIP (National Commission for Indigenous
Peoples), they even have Republic Act No. 8371. But are these laws even implemented strictly?
Are their commission works for their own interests? If so, there shouldnt be any cases of
development aggression, an issue when it comes to their self-determination, extrajudicial
killings, displacements, etc. But if one will look thoroughly, up until now, these problems
continues. Land-grabbing from the IPs is still persistent, and if that RA 8371 really protects
them, then they should have the voice to fight for their rights but no. Their voices cant be heard
no matter how loud they shout because our government only listens to the few who are powerful
and our government is a slave and a puppet to those foreign countries who did nothing but to
exploit and abuse our natural and human resources.
The same case of Muslim women happens to our Indigenous women. They suffer
multiple burdens, they are given limited chances and opportunities and they are the ones
suffering the most abuses and oppression. And again, the question remains will federalism be
the solution to all of these?
Should our president focus on federalizing our country instead of solving these pressing
problems that are usually and are always being overlooked? Is it the solution? Because this kind
of change needs and takes time. Will it be worth it for our country to spend time and effort on
this kind of system? A system that until now, we cant fully understand? A system where we have
no absolute idea how it works? Is federalism worth taking all these risks?