Post by jb on Feb 16, 2006 12:38:45 GMT 7
Jb Ronquillo
PoS100
Bonus Paper on Federalism
The talk I attended was held at the Escaler Hall last Feb. 10, 2006. It was primarily about the application of a decentralized form of federalism in the Philippines. It talked about how this form of government would put less power in the hands of the central government and more on the individual states. This way, the individual states would have a better control within their areas.
It was said that in shifting to a federal form of government, a number of proposals were made on how to divide the Philippines into states and how many states would be needed. It is important to note that there are many factors affecting this division. Example, mountains and rivers must not belong to two different states. These natural land formations must be clearly within one state because if not, there would be tension between the two adjacent states on whose policy is going to be followed. Also, we must take into consideration the tribe lands of our indigenous people. In all the proposals shown, I noticed that the two tribes, one in Luzon and one in Mindanao, occupied individual states. The speaker showed many different division proposals, from five states constituting in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and 2 states belonging/concerning the two major indigenous tribes, in Luzon and in Mindanao, to proposals suggesting a multitude of states. According to him, the most famous is the plan proposing for multiple state divisions (10+ states) in the Philippines, and not just five. I find this very reasonable since a five state Philippines would be almost the same as a unitary form of government. I remember hearing the speaker quoting an American president, saying that they needed to divide America simply because it is too large to be governed by a single prominent government unit. For me, the smaller the states’ land area, the better since it would always be easier to govern over a small land are than a large one. The number of states does not really matter to me as long as each individual state is able to support its’ residents.
Also, state divisions would also mean that there would be more attention given to smaller businesses. We could maximize this by dividing states and utilizing their ability to produce a good that they are good at. There would be varied and improved specialization of the states’ production of goods, which could lead to better efficiency in the long run. For example, a state whose prime commodity is mangoes could focus its attention to producing mangoes only. This way, they could increase their efficiency and knowledge in producing mangoes. It is a matter of “exploiting” the talents of the states in such a way that each individual state would contribute to the overall well-being of the country.
The federal form of government also has its drawbacks. One concern is that if the Philippines does become federal, how would the less economic stable states support themselves. There is no problem regarding Central Luzon’s ability to support itself, but how about the Visayas islands? These “poor” states would have to be able to stand on their own without the help or aid from the central government. How will these states be able to compare to the state in which Manila belongs to. Although there are inequality among states in other federal countries like the United States, it is not as great as what would happen hear it federalism is applied.
As of now, according to the speaker, we are using a unitary form of government wherein everything is “controlled” by the central government one way or another. As an example, the speaker talked about what a mayor in a rural area outside Luzon would need to go through if he wanted to ask the government for resources to fund his project – cementing a road. The speaker explained that this mayor would need to go to Manila and literally “beg” the government to give him what he needs. In short, this is a very inefficient way of governance and this is because the central government has the power to do so.
The speaker also pointed out that only the places/regions within and adjacent to Metro Manila are the ones receiving government attention. This results to neglect of other islands/regions in the Philippines. It is as if the Philippines constitutes of Metro Manila only, and with Cebu and Davao at most. Our current government is inefficient in providing service to our people as a whole. It only provides certain sectors and places with attention and tends to neglect others. In my own opinion, although the Philippines is (as compared to other countries) not that big in terms of land area, but our current form of government is not able to support all the other peripheral regions due to power centrism and neglect for public service.
In the end, after thinking about if federalism would be beneficial to our country, it occurred to me that it could, provided that it would be properly implemented. Also, we must admit that we must not hope in something such as a shift like federalism to solve al our problems as a country. To some extent, yes maybe it can at least lessen rural inequality and poverty, but this shift cannot save us entirely. We Filipinos must start to accept the reality that we are currently facing countless problems in our country and it is not realistic enough to hope that we can have the easy way out and solve all our problems simply by changing into federalism. We must accept the fact we, the people, would still be the one working towards progress and improvement one single step at a time, solving one problem at a time, and not rely on our “one time, big time” solutions.
PoS100
Bonus Paper on Federalism
The talk I attended was held at the Escaler Hall last Feb. 10, 2006. It was primarily about the application of a decentralized form of federalism in the Philippines. It talked about how this form of government would put less power in the hands of the central government and more on the individual states. This way, the individual states would have a better control within their areas.
It was said that in shifting to a federal form of government, a number of proposals were made on how to divide the Philippines into states and how many states would be needed. It is important to note that there are many factors affecting this division. Example, mountains and rivers must not belong to two different states. These natural land formations must be clearly within one state because if not, there would be tension between the two adjacent states on whose policy is going to be followed. Also, we must take into consideration the tribe lands of our indigenous people. In all the proposals shown, I noticed that the two tribes, one in Luzon and one in Mindanao, occupied individual states. The speaker showed many different division proposals, from five states constituting in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and 2 states belonging/concerning the two major indigenous tribes, in Luzon and in Mindanao, to proposals suggesting a multitude of states. According to him, the most famous is the plan proposing for multiple state divisions (10+ states) in the Philippines, and not just five. I find this very reasonable since a five state Philippines would be almost the same as a unitary form of government. I remember hearing the speaker quoting an American president, saying that they needed to divide America simply because it is too large to be governed by a single prominent government unit. For me, the smaller the states’ land area, the better since it would always be easier to govern over a small land are than a large one. The number of states does not really matter to me as long as each individual state is able to support its’ residents.
Also, state divisions would also mean that there would be more attention given to smaller businesses. We could maximize this by dividing states and utilizing their ability to produce a good that they are good at. There would be varied and improved specialization of the states’ production of goods, which could lead to better efficiency in the long run. For example, a state whose prime commodity is mangoes could focus its attention to producing mangoes only. This way, they could increase their efficiency and knowledge in producing mangoes. It is a matter of “exploiting” the talents of the states in such a way that each individual state would contribute to the overall well-being of the country.
The federal form of government also has its drawbacks. One concern is that if the Philippines does become federal, how would the less economic stable states support themselves. There is no problem regarding Central Luzon’s ability to support itself, but how about the Visayas islands? These “poor” states would have to be able to stand on their own without the help or aid from the central government. How will these states be able to compare to the state in which Manila belongs to. Although there are inequality among states in other federal countries like the United States, it is not as great as what would happen hear it federalism is applied.
As of now, according to the speaker, we are using a unitary form of government wherein everything is “controlled” by the central government one way or another. As an example, the speaker talked about what a mayor in a rural area outside Luzon would need to go through if he wanted to ask the government for resources to fund his project – cementing a road. The speaker explained that this mayor would need to go to Manila and literally “beg” the government to give him what he needs. In short, this is a very inefficient way of governance and this is because the central government has the power to do so.
The speaker also pointed out that only the places/regions within and adjacent to Metro Manila are the ones receiving government attention. This results to neglect of other islands/regions in the Philippines. It is as if the Philippines constitutes of Metro Manila only, and with Cebu and Davao at most. Our current government is inefficient in providing service to our people as a whole. It only provides certain sectors and places with attention and tends to neglect others. In my own opinion, although the Philippines is (as compared to other countries) not that big in terms of land area, but our current form of government is not able to support all the other peripheral regions due to power centrism and neglect for public service.
In the end, after thinking about if federalism would be beneficial to our country, it occurred to me that it could, provided that it would be properly implemented. Also, we must admit that we must not hope in something such as a shift like federalism to solve al our problems as a country. To some extent, yes maybe it can at least lessen rural inequality and poverty, but this shift cannot save us entirely. We Filipinos must start to accept the reality that we are currently facing countless problems in our country and it is not realistic enough to hope that we can have the easy way out and solve all our problems simply by changing into federalism. We must accept the fact we, the people, would still be the one working towards progress and improvement one single step at a time, solving one problem at a time, and not rely on our “one time, big time” solutions.