Federalism round table discussion – opening remarks Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I would like to applaud the participants in this round table discussion for federalism federalism for accepting accepting our invitatio invitation n and lending lending their considerable considerable talents to this endeavor on this lovely afternoon. On behalf of the Institute for Governme Government nt and Law Reform eform,, thank thank you very much much for coming coming and welcome to !" Let me start with a simple thought e#periment. $ow big do you think the !hilippines is% In geography we learn that we have a land area of around three hundred forty thousand s&uare kilometers, but is that how big we are% Our internal waters between islands count as sovereign territory, shouldn't that area be included% In fact, if you put the country into a map of the continental nited (tates, the !hilippines, whose land area is about the si)e of the state of *ew +e#ico, actually stretches from e#as to *orth Dakota. If you put us into a map of -urope, -urope, (ulu to atanes atanes would would stretch stretch from Italy Italy to Denmark. Denmark. he illu illusi sion on of bein being g a smal smalll coun countr try y has has been been brou brought ght abou aboutt by te#t te#tboo books ks espousing maps that use the misleading +ercator pro/ection. his huge e#panse of territory, territory, with considerable stretches of sea in betwee between n scatte scatterred mounta mountaino inous us isl island ands, s, has produ produced ced a cornuc cornucopi opia a of cultures, peoples, traditions and languages. Our people are diverse, and the stru strugg ggle le of gove govern rnin ing g a dive divers rse e nati nation on has has trou troubl bled ed the the lead leader ers s of this this country ever since our 0rst attempts at self1determination. self1determination. oday oday the !hilippine state is still centered centered on an administrative bureaucracy centered on the *ational 2apital Region. 3uthority emanates from the capital city, but enforcing this authority presents a set of problems that has hounded kingdoms and empires since time immemorial. It is not without some irony that we discuss the virtues and risks of federalism here, today, right smack in the middle of Imperial +anila. hat term has served to be a rallying point for those unsatis0ed with a perceived imbal imbalanc ance e in gover governme nment nt attent attention ion betwee between n the provi province nces s and the *2R. *2R. hey contend that development is constrained by an unwarranted bias towards +anila and the regions surrounding it, and the further you get away from the capital, the more you are neglected. he man of the hour is of course our !resident, !resident, Rodrigo Rodrigo Duterte. $is presi presiden dentia tiall campai campaign gn had pushed pushed the debate debate over over our curre current nt form form of government from something that had been on the backburner for several years into a key election issue. he !resident's view was anchored on the
idea that federalism is ultimately the solution for a lasting peace in +indanao. Our view takes into account the whole picture 4 what does a federal system, with !hilippine characteristics, look like% he direction of !hilippine administrative history has been towards greater local autonomy and the devolution of government functions to the local governments units. aking a federal style of government may thus be seen as merely at a logical continuation of the path that we had been taking as a nation, most recently e#empli0ed by the Local Government 2ode, authored by our president's party1mate, (enator *ene !imentel. *ow today, at this round table discussion, we are given a uni&ue chance in5uencing the decisions of government on the issue of federalism. I am con0dent that the deliberations would provide uni&ue insight, and the success of these consultations from such a diverse intellectual crowd would bring about thoughtful change in society. I wish for the success of this undertaking, not only for the IGLR or ! or the government, but for the 6ilipino people. hank you.
