No Federalism? We’ll see much of the same!

That the fragile peace between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government has broken again is a step backwards in our peace efforts. Just when we thought that we could have achieved lasting peace in troubled Mindanao, we’re literally back to square one! That we’re nowhere near any potential peace in Mindanao gives us an idea that this country is headed for more trouble in Mindanao until someone comes up with a plan that the people in Mindanao could buy into.

I have always maintained that our shift into a Federal form of governance is an idea that many people in Mindanao would buy into; after all Federalism offers not only more powers to local governments, it also diffuses the vast powers of the Presidency, thus removing the center of power from Imperial Manila down to Federal States. With the centers of powers now distributed amongst the Federal States, we can expect lesser coup attempts from military adventurists, as grabbing the seat of power in Malacañang is no guarantee that the entire country will be under their control.

Unfortunately, the issue of our shift towards a Federalized system of governance was waylaid in the last State of the Nation Address (SONA) of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA). This shift for a Federal system of governance cannot be done by simply waving a magic wand. The least we could expect is for the President to have made a call for a Constitutional Convention (concon) so that the delegates for this concon can be elected together with those seeking public office in the 2010 elections. That wouldn’t have cost the Philippine government any additional money.

At this point, we can only hope that this effort would be given importance during the President’s last SONA in 2009 because by doing so, she won’t be accused of using the concon to allow her to continue being in power after her term expires. This means we still have a year to push for Federalism. If we fail in this, we shall see much of the same politics after 2010.

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Late Tuesday afternoon, I got a call from a Mr. Ben Tulda, general manager of the Cebu Coliseum who is as old as the Cebu Coliseum itself as he was already there since it was owned by the late Berting Dayrit, a close friend of my father. Mr. Tulda called me to confirm the article we wrote about what happened at the Cebu Coliseum during the AJ “Bazooka” Banal vs. Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion fight that lasted only 10 rounds. After the fight was over, it was literally another fight to get out of the coliseum.

Of course, Atty. Augusto “Gus” Go was very troubled when he read our article. He called up Councilor Jack Jakosalem to tell him that he would personally investigate this matter. This is why Mr. Tulda called me for a review of the situation. The security guards that manned the gates belonged to the Centurion Security agency as reported by my classmate. Mr. Tulda told me that the security agency that the Cebu Coliseum uses is the Caca Security agency; the Centurion security guards were apparently brought to the Cebu Coliseum by Aldeguer Promotions.

Upon his investigation, Mr. Tulda learned that the reason why the Centurion security guards did not open the gates wide after the Banal-Concepcion fight was because there was still another boxing match, the last fight for that evening. The Centurion guards feared that non-paying boxing fans might slip into the coliseum if the gates were opened wide. Come now, how many more people would have wanted to see the last fight? No one!

 I’m no big boxing aficionado but I do watch my share of boxing matches. I know the main event should be the last event of the night. I don’t know why there was one more event after that fight, but I would like to believe that the majority of the fans went to see the Banal-Concepcion fight and not the last one. Hence, everyone trooped towards the exit after the Banal-Concepcion was over.

There was no valid excuse not to open the gates wide and prevent a potential hazard. While there were no untoward incidents that happened last Saturday evening, we should consider ourselves lucky. But what if there was? We could have another Wowowee or Ozone disaster right in our midst. I’m sure that Atty. Gus Go would never allow a similar incident to happen again. Let’s hope that we’ve learned from this experience.

As an added measure, Councilor Jakosalem is putting up an ordinance that would penalize establishments or public entertainment places that would not open their exit doors when the performance is over. It’s about time we passed such a measure!