Revered judges, spirited audience, worthy opponents, allow me to take the

next few minutes to further convince you that a federal form of government must
be adopted in the Philippines.

My colleagues in the affirmative side have sufficiently presented before you

the strongest arguments for federalism (which the opposite side hardly overcome.)

First, we maintain that the shift to federal form is NECESSARY. For one,
the unitary form is highly incompatible with the Philippines’ geographical, socio-
cultural and political make-up. It is simply not working.

Second, we affirm that federalism is BENEFICIAL. State governments get

to keep most of the revenues they themselves generate. Therefore, this benefits us
by curing the uneven distribution of wealth that is the mechanism of our present
system. More importantly, state governments get to use their own money to fund
local needs and initiate local development without having to go through tedious
and bureaucratic processes to secure approval from the central government.

Lastly, we believe that federalism is PRACTICABLE. We can change our

government because it can be done through constitutional convention under the
1987 Constitution. This paradigm shift will lead us away from the impracticality of
the current centralized form of government in terms of reaching out to its
constituent local governments. As our third speaker has put it, the national
government can never hope to manage all 7, 107 islands without sacrificing
efficiency and governance that is reflective of socio-cultural and geographical
identity. Federalism then can be instrumental for local governments to attain self-
determination by doing away with the mechanisms that an indifferent national
government imposes upon them.

And most of all it will surely resolve the Moro conflict because everyone’s
sake and choice matters.

We don’t need to live like in this today’s government there is still room for
change. And that change is for the better. Ladies and gentlemen, we in the
affirmative side believes that in federalism, we strengthen parts to strengthen the
whole. We do not concentrate governance to one central government; we transfer
governance to the people. Change is coming.