IS MY REGION READY FOR FEDERALISM?

IF THE SHIFT TO FEDERALISM IS A STEP TOWARDS GENUINE LOCAL GOVERNANCE, WHAT STEPS
SHOULD BE TAKEN TO REALIZE THE SHIFT?

INTRODUCTION

FEDERALISM

Federalism [from the Latin root foedus, which means "formal agreement or covenant."]

Federalism has been defined as “A principle of government that defines the relationship
between the central government at the national level and its constituent units at the regional,
state, or local levels. Under this principle of government, power and authority is allocated
between the national and local governmental units, such that each unit is delegated a sphere of
power and authority only it can exercise, while other powers must be shared.”1

By definition, Federalism seeks to establish a central or national government and a local unit of
governance or a constituent unit whereby by both entities shall exercise their respective
exclusive powers as well as powers that are shared.

In the Philippine Federalism proposal, the exclusive and the shared powers of the separate
entities (national and local states or regions) are yet to be defined. However, it is a universal
consensus that through federalism, greater autonomy of constituent units and increased
decentralization will be achieved.

Federalism has been introduced as the harbinger of change as its adoption will herald a new
Philippines - a Philippines better than the one we have right now. Supporters of Federalism
argue and promote that it will allow the exercise of greater power and access to resources by
the constituent states, increase decentralization and eliminate the disproportionate
distribution of public funds, accelerate economic growth and development, improve the
delivery of services to the people, resolve the Mindanao insurgency , etc.

Our region, Region XI, is composed of Davao del Norte, Davao Del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao
Occidental, Compostela Valley, and the Highly Urbanized City of Davao. In the proposed Federal
System, Region XI has been proposed to be merged with provinces from other regions including
Agusan Del Sur, Surigao Del Sur, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat thus
forming a single unit entity known as the State of Southern Mindanao2

1
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Federalism
2
Joint Resolution No. 10
While Federalism is promoted as a panacea to cure the ills of the current system, however, the
question remains – is Region XI ready for Federalism?

REGION XI

Region XI or Davao Region is located on the southeastern portion of Mindanao, comprising of

the Provinces of Davao del Norte, Davao Del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao Occidental,
Compostela Valley and the Highly Urbanized City of Davao thus covering a total land area of
19,673 sq.km. Its premier city is Davao City which has an area of 2,444 sq. km.3

As of the National and Local Elections of 2016, the region has a total of 2,659,704 registered
voters4 and a total population of 4,893,318 as of 20155

Davao City, reputedly the largest city in the world, has an area of 244,000 hectares, or 8 per
cent of the land area of Southern Mindanao Region or Region XI.6

Davao del Norte is the smallest of the region’s provinces, covering a land area of 3,463 sq.
kilometers or 18.4% of the entire region. Its population is 945,764 based on the 2010 census7

Davao Occidental covers a total area of 2,163.45 square kilometres (835.31 sq mi) ????

Davao del Sur covers a land area of total area of 5,164 sq. km with a population of 450,0008
????

Davao Oriental occupies the biggest land area among the provinces of Region XI with a total
land area of 5,164 square kilometers. This represents 26 percent of the total land area of
Region XI9

Compostela Valley ????

According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Regional Office-XI, “the
region serves as melting pot of many cultural groups. Cebuanos, Boholanos, and Ilonggos are
the majority groups. Others include Maguindanaos, Maranaos, Manobos, T’bolis, Bagobos,
B’laans, Samals, and Agtas. Smaller communities of Ilocanos, Tagalogs, Warays, and Bicolanos
have also settled here.

3
http://nro11.neda.gov.ph
4
http://www.comelec.gov.ph/?r=2016NLE/Statistics/VotersTurnout2016NLE
5
http://psa.gov.ph/content/population-region-xi-davao-based-2015-census-population
6
http://nro11.neda.gov.ph/davao-region/davao-city/
7
http://nro11.neda.gov.ph/davao-region/davao-del-norte/
8
http://nro11.neda.gov.ph/davao-region/davao-del-sur/
9
http://nro11.neda.gov.ph/davao-region/davao-oriental/
In terms of population, Davao Region is the country’s 5th fastest growing region with 4.5 million
residents, making up 20% of Mindanao’s population and 5% of the country’s total.

Davao City’s population hit 1.44 million based on the latest survey results released by the
National Statistics Office (NSO) for 2010.

Considered as a region of royalties, Davao Region is home to the Philippine Eagle — the world’s
largest eagle and king of Philippine skies; Waling-waling — the queen of orchids; irresistible
Durian — the king of fruits; and Mt. Apo — the country’s highest peak and king of Philippine
mountains.

The region is blessed with fertile soil and good climate conducive to the cultivation of
agricultural crops. In 2011, the region was the country’s #1 producer of coconut, durian,
bananas, cacao and coffee. It was ranked 2nd in abaca production, next only to the Bicol
Region.

The devastation brought by Typhoon Pablo in December 2012 had a tremendous effect on the
region’s crop production, particularly in the provinces of Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley and
Davao del Norte.

Some of Davao’s well-known tourist destinations include:

Mount Apo, at 9,692 feet, is one of the most popular climbing destinations in the country. Our
dive spots in the Davao Gulf are one of the country’s best.

In Samal, there is the Monfort Bat Cave, whose bat colony was certified by the Guinness Book of
World Records as the largest colony of fruit bats in the world with a population ranging from 1.8
to 2.5 million.

In Mati City, Davao Oriental, lies the The Sleeping Dinosaur, a land formation along Pujada Bay
that resembles a submerged dinosaur sleeping on its belly, offering a wonderful break from the
landscape of mostly ricefields and coconuts.

Just like the rest of the Philippines, Davao Region is the place to be for fiestas. Davao City comes
alive with the celebration of the “Kadayawan sa Dabaw” every third week of August, coinciding
with the harvest of fruits, flowers and agricultural produce.

The Musikahan sa Tagum is internationally known as the all-inclusive and longest running music
festival in the country that showcases the talents of Tagumeños, Mindanaoans and Filipinos in
general.

The Bulawan or Gold Festival of Compostela Valley, which is celebrated every 1st week of
March is reflective of Comval’s gold and other mineral wealth to promote the vision of
transforming the province into a jewelry- making center. As a province-wide event, the festival
involves various events and friendly competitions participated in by all other sectors of the
community.

These are just a handful of the many tourist attractions of which Davao Region is richly blessed.”

This paper seeks to answer the question by examining the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity,
and Threats of Region XI vis-à-vis the proposed shift to a federal type of government.

SWOT ANALYSIS

The foregoing notwithstanding, this paper enumerates the internal and external factors that
will determine southern 4indanao’s readiness to a federal form of government and itself
becoming an independent yet effective and sustainable constituent state;

INTERNAL FACTORS

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

1.Geographical Location 1. Communist Rebellion

2.Political Stability 2.
3.Culture of unity despite diversity 3.
4.Rich culture and history
5. Relative peace and order
6. Young population? (check davao
website for stats)
7.Community cooperation and
support in government programs
8.
 EXTERNAL FACTORS

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

1. 1.Political destabilization
2. 2.Economic Sabotage/interference
3. 3. Christian-Moro relationship
dynamics
 CONCLUSION

Based on available preliminary data, it seems that the region enjoys relative advantage and
superior sustainability as against other regions in the Philippines as per diversity, participation,
regulations, services, taxes, volunteerism, and effectiveness indicators.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) , an independent U.S. foreign aid agency that is
helping lead the fight against global poverty and forms partnerships with some of the world’s
poorest countries committed to good governance, economic freedom, and investments in their
citizens including the Philippines, introduced indicators which measures the quality of public
services, the quality of the civil service and its independence from political pressures, the
quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government’s
commitment to its stated policies as government effectiveness indicators.

Specifically, government effectiveness indicators are measurements of:

 competence of civil service;

 effective implementation of government decisions;
 and public service vulnerability to political pressure;
 ability to manage political alternations without drastic policy changes or interruptions in
government services;
 flexibility, learning, and innovation within the political leadership;
 ability to coordinate conflicting objectives into coherent policies;
 the efficiency of revenue mobilization and budget management;
 the quality of transportation infrastructure, telecommunications, electricity supply,
public health care provision, and public schools;
 the availability of online government services;
 policy consistency; the extent to which government commitments are honored by new
governments;
 prevalence of red tape; the degree to which bureaucratic delays hinder business
activity;
 existence of a taxpayer service and information program, and an efficient and effective
appeals mechanism;
 the extent to which:
  effective coordination mechanisms ensure policy consistency across departmental
boundaries, and administrative structures are organized along functional lines with
little duplication;
 the business processes of government agencies are regularly reviewed to ensure
efficiency of decision making and implementation;
 political leadership sets and maintains strategic priorities and the government
effectively implements reforms;
 hiring and promotion within the government is based on merit and performance, and
ethical standards prevail;
 the government wage bill is sustainable and does not crowd out spending required
for public services; pay and benefit levels do not deter talented people from entering
the public sector; flexibility (that is not abused) exists to pay more attractive wages in
hard-to-fill positions;
 government revenues are generated by low-distortion taxes; import tariffs are low
and relatively uniform, export rebate or duty drawbacks are functional; the tax base is
broad and free of arbitrary exemptions; tax administration is effective and rule-based;
and tax administration and compliance costs are low;
 policies and priorities are linked to the budget; multi-year expenditure projections are
integrated into the budget formulation process, and reflect explicit costing of the
implications of new policy initiatives; the budget is formulated through systematic
consultations with spending ministries and the legislature, adhering to a fixed budget
calendar; the budget classification system is comprehensive and consistent with
international standards; and off-budget expenditures are kept to a minimum and
handled transparently;
 the budget is implemented as planned, and actual expenditures deviate only slightly
from planned levels;
 budget monitoring occurs throughout the year based on well functioning
management information systems; reconciliation of banking and fiscal records is
practiced comprehensively, properly, and in a timely way;
 in-year fiscal reports and public accounts are prepared promptly and regularly and
provide full and accurate data; the extent to which accounts are audited in a timely,
professional and comprehensive manner, and appropriate action is taken on budget
reports and audit findings.10

Thus if the foregoing indicators are standards for good and effective governance, Davao City-
the proposed capital for the State of Southern Mindanao, with all its achievements, citation and
awards would even make it a better nation-state than the rest of the Philippines as it is right
now.

Further, the unprecedented economic growth of Davao region is reflective of its ability to
exercise effective governance which will only be further strengthened and enhanced if it will
exercise given greater autonomy in local governance and local power to tap its resources to the

10
https://www.mcc.gov/about
end that the people of this land of promise will enjoy the benefit of a government that is truly
of the people, for the people and by the people.

As per available information, Davao City has won the title of Most Child-Friendly City for the
fourth time for programs and projects protecting the rights of children and upholding their
welfare and well-being.

Davao City has been adjudged as Most Gender Responsive LGU in the Philippines two times: in
2004 with the Gawad Galing Pook, and in 2005 with the Award for Gender Responsive Local
Governance from the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW).

Davao City became a top destination of tourists in 1997 as it won the Kalakbay Award that year.

In 1996, it made it to the top bracket of the Top 20 Most Livable Cities in Asia. Then it repeated
this feat in 1997, in 1998 and 1999;

In 1999, it won the Cleanest & Greenest City award for its clean and green program focused on
environmental rehabilitation, protection and conservation, solid waste management, pollution
control and re-greening of urban areas, forest and watershed management.
It received an Award of Excellence from the Office of the President as the first runner-up in the
Cleanest & Greenest Highly-Urbanized City in 2004, then second runner-up for three
consecutive years in 2001 up to 2003.

In 2002, Davao City was recognized as the Most Competitive City to do Business in the
Philippines by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center and the Department of
Trade & Industry.

In 2003, Davao was also chosen as the Third Most Competitive Metro City by AIM and DTI.

The Davao City Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (DCCII) received the national Most
Outstanding Chamber Award for 2005. During a selection in New Delhi, India in 2005, DCCII was
adjudged the Best Chamber in the Asia-Pacific Region.

These are just few of the many awards and citations gained by Davao City which reflects the
desire of both the local government of Davao City and the community to grow, improve, and
develop into a sustainable and effective government unit.

While it may be said that Davao City is not Davao Region and vice- versa, however, the victory
of President ( and former mayor of Davao City) Rodrigo Duterte reflects the desire and
readiness of the entire region to be governed the Davao City way and as a consequence, for
their provinces to reap the same growth and sustainability enjoyed by Davao City;

The region in fact ready for Federalism.

 RECOMMENDATION

IF THE SHIFT TO FEDERALISM IS A STEP TOWARDS GENUINE LOCAL GOVERNANCE, WHAT STEPS
SHOULD BE TAKEN TO REALIZE THE SHIFT?