DILG rebrands Cha-cha as CORE

MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration is not yet giving up on its bid for constitutional reforms even as the issue of a shift to federalism has apparently taken a back seat.

Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson and undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), said the agency is pushing for reforms in the 1987 Constitution, especially those relating to internal revenue allocations, political-electoral and economic provisions.

It is tagging its new push as constitutional reform (CORE) instead of Charter change, which he admitted as having negative connotations because of its link to a previous administration. 

“We recalibrated it. We are using a new logo and tagline in CORE. We are using it to open the eyes of people and to start over again,” Malaya said.

He added that the administration is ready to put forward these “surgical amendments” to the 1987 Constitution, which he described as, although “outmoded,” having allowed the country to shift from an authoritarian regime to a democracy.

Still, an inter-agency task force on federalism and constitutional reform is working on a draft constitution that the DILG expects to present to President Duterte before the end of the year.

“We are not leaving federalism behind, it is there. A draft federal constitution is in the works but we could not campaign for it yet,” Malaya said in Filipino during an interview.

He also said that the task force has yet to come into an agreement on the draft because of some issues that include the cost of shifting to another form of governance.

The economic cluster, he added, also expressed reservations on the draft constitution put forward by the commission headed by former chief justice Renato Puno. 

Malaya noted that the task force still has not come out with a common position — one that would reconcile dissenting opinions on the shift to a federal government.