Federalism to solve country’s problems – Mangondato

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential aspirant Faisal Mangondato will push a federal form of government if he wins this year’s elections, seeing it as a means to “rid” the country of its age-old problems.

In an interview with “The Chiefs” on One News channel on Thursday, Mangondato said federalism would ultimately remove the problems caused by a unitarian system of government.

“I would push for the system of federalism, where the government would be the one that would reach out to the people, because currently, what a leader wants does not happen with the old system. This is the problem of the Constitution, where the old system is already very polluted and our government is really all mixed up,” he told The Chiefs in Filipino.

According to him, all 17 regions in the country will prosper under a federal system because “they would have power and would each have their own budget and funds.”

“With that, all 17 regions would be able to prosper altogether since they would have power and funds to do so,” Mangondato said.

In past presidential debates and interviews, the aspirant from Mindanao has been pushing for a federal government.

Meanwhile, Mangondato compared the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to the imposition of martial law.

“The way (the government) handled the pandemic is like martial law. We should not only look at (other countries), we should listen to our citizens because they are smart,” he said.

“We should listen to fellow Filipinos because the lives that are affected here are lives of Filipinos,” he added.