The main meat of the discussion on whether we should adopt federalism or not is that shifting to federalism will empower local governments to facilitate faster delivery of basic services necessary and appropriate to their respective constituents. constituents. This is viewed by the proponents of a federal structure of government as the formula to surge economic development and alleviate povert poverty y. The curre current nt admini administr strati ation on passio passionat nately ely believ believes es that that this this will will nally nally solve solve the “Imperial Manila” laments of the “probinsyanos”, specically the Southerners, and the armed conict in Mindanao. !owever, the fact that federal system is actually a state"building e#ort is not always mentioned. $revious legislators have responded to unsustainable and staggering economic development by enacting the %ocal &overnment 'ode in ())(, which, in a manner, a federal system. *e can see that despite the mitigated unitarism for the past two decades, it is not the nature of a system of government that causes it to fail, rather it is the people who operate the system. +y merely changing the system of government without changing the people, we cannot epect a di#erent positive result. The wea- points in the proposed proposed system are are as follows /irst, economically bac-ward provinces or regions would have to be dependent on e0uali1ation payments from richer areas one. The locally"generated funds of some municipalities are still small and are still dependent on the I23 for their operations. Second, as many as 45 percent of /ilipino politicians are connected to dynasties who were able to perpetuate themselves in power and amass vast wealth through corruption. Imagine how much more inuence and wealth will these dynasties monopoli1e if more powers from the national government are devolved and handed over to their control. /inally, this is not a silver bullet solution to the armed uprisings in Mindanao as what many would envision because the Moro6s want a separate nation, not autonomy. In the list of what can ma-e our country better at this time, given the prevailing political culture, our need for laws to ght corruption ran-s much higher in importance and urgency than the need to shift to a federal system of government. /ederalism will not yield positive results for the country at this time. /ederalism will not solve poverty and ine0uality, simply because it does not touch the real center. It only redraws the periphery. *hat we need at this time time is to allo allow w well" well"me mean anin ing g citi citi1e 1ens ns a chan chance ce at publ public ic serv servic ice, e, inst instea ead d of allo allowi wing ng gover governme nment nt positi positions ons to be the birthr birthrigh ightt of de facto facto royal royal dynast dynasties ies.. +eside +esides, s, the local local autonomy autonomy is yet to nd a rm ground in the overall overall administratio administration n of government. government. 7ven the promise promise to eradicate eradicate crime, drugs and corruptio corruption n in three to si months can hardly hardly happen if there is no central authority. 3t the very least, strengthened anticorruption instruments must rst be in place before any shift to a federal system of government is underta-en. These are indispensable preconditions for a federal system of government to function for the people6s welfare. The forms and structures of governments, should be born out of the uni0ue eperience and history of the nation and not to be patterned from foreign structures and epect the same outcome. 3s what political analysts would say“we should not repeat the haste under pressure in ma-ing our present 8()94: 'onstitution.” +ottomline, under ideal political conditions, a federal system of government may be better than a unitary form of government. ;nfortunately, we are not under ideal political conditions.
