Federalismin its fetus stage

I got a lot of text messages yesterday especially from our friends who belong to our advocacy group called Save our Languages through Federalism (Solfed) that finally, no less than Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) talked about what we guys have been saying all along about the control of political and economic power resting only in Imperial Manila during her State of the Nation Address (SONA). And that Pres. Arroyo mentioned that the creation of Mega Regions would be the beginning of Federalism in this country. Indeed, the President made mention of Federalism as a way of giving back power to the people and the Regions! Talking about Federalism got the President the longest standing ovation in the halls of Congress!

But I thought about this quite seriously and before we are misled into believing that we are seeing the birth of Federalism, my pessimism got the best of me. I would rather look at this as the "fetus" of Federalism; that finally, a President talked freely about our nation becoming a Federal State. But all this largely depends on Congress where it's Speaker of the House, Rep. Jose de Venecia is toying only with the idea of having a Parliamentary System of government while Federalism has to wait. Thus being a "fetus", Federalism in its early stage could have a miscarriage or worse, someone could have it aborted! So now I hope you can understand my pessimism.

Again let me point out clearly: A Parliamentary "only" system would be worse than Imperial Manila and we should never succumb to empty promises that Federalism would have to follow. Remember politicians make promises and they usually break their promises. Let's decide to agree that if Joe de Venecia wants a Parliamentary system, it must be part and parcel of a Federal system; or else, we won't agree to a Constituent Assembly and demand for a Constitutional Convention (concon).

The problem really is, while many of us agree that the Cory Constitution has to be amended, it doesn't mean that we have to junk this charter totality. The problem Speaker Venecia faces is, a Parliamentary system is a hard-sell for Filipinos for two simple reasons: First, we already got a taste of it during the Marcos years and still it didn't work out the way it should.

Secondly, and perhaps the most important reason is that, this system means the Filipino voter would no longer vote for their President or Prime Minister and as reported on page 4 of the Philippine Star last Monday, nine out of 10 Filipinos still want to vote for their President directly according to a survey conducted by the Center for Issues and Advocacy (The Center). Filipinos hate the fact that politicians practically grab everything. Now they even want to grab our God-given right to vote for our leaders!

With this information, I would rather continue with the present Presidential form of government, but change the term from the present single six-year term to four years with another four-year reelection, just like what we use to have. Then, rather than kick out the entire Senate because of a bunch of useless Senators who shouldn't have been there, let's vote them via Regions or by State and finally, we Federalize the entire country. If you ask me, we would be the only nation on earth to follow the political system of the world's greatest economic and military power, the United States of America.

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Tuesday dawn, I was abruptly awakened by a call from my people that the Cebu Plaza Fair, which is just next door to our office building was on fire. Call it a force of habit, but whenever there's a huge conflagration, I always try to be around, just in case someone needs a helping hand. When I got to Colon St., Plaza Fair was a goner and our Fire Department, including as usual the Filipino-Chinese Volunteer Fire Brigade were already in place making sure that the fire is contained within the building and not threaten the other buildings.

On the scene was The Freeman's Managing Editor Nimrod Quinoñes doing what our reporters should be doing, taking pictures of the fire scene. He was the man on the spot, literally at the right place and the right time. Also on the scene were Councilor Augustus Pe and Nigel Banacia. It is always comforting to see our public officials present on a disaster scene, ready and available for anyone who might need the help of City Hall.

Whenever an institution burns especially in downtown Colon St. I really feel a big loss. After all, the cost of building new structures these days is next to prohibitive. If I remember right, the Plaza Fair building was built by our late friend Nick Kho and his partner Earl Kokseng on the property of Dr. Potenciano Larrazabal. At this point, we don't have any idea whether this shopping mall would be rebuilt or not.

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