Salenga, Kimberly Anne L.

LM-431

“Federalism as a System of Government in the Philippines”

What is meant by federal system of government? Will it be beneficial to the

Philippines as a system of government? Will it really address the issues in the
Philippines as we shift to that system of it will just worsen the scenario? Will it benefit
the most or just some of the citizen of the country? How it will work for this country?
These are just some of the question that are being raised by netizens as President
Rodrigo Durterte announced that one of his ideologies is that the unitary form of
government will shift into a federal form which was been supported by his tandem last
election Alan Peter Cayetano stating that it is the only way we can experience the real
change that we dreamt of and to turn around the supposedly defective system in this
country.

Federal system of government is which a country is ruled by a central

government then under which are smaller subdivided government well known as local
state government. It is also important to note that the central government built-in check
and balances to ensure that all are equal when it comes to when it comes to the
exercise of their power and no one asserts too much of it. Also, when it comes to
decision making the power is equally shared between the central government and local
government and decides for the welfare of the most. Another fact is that in a federal
system of government citizen of different places of the country are govern by different
laws. On the other hand, in the unitary form of government the power to decide,
implement policies, and programs to provide lies all on the discrepancy of the central
government that is the reason why we have uniformity when it comes to law throughout
the country. It also been an issue that the national budget is unfairly being divided
because Luzon got 20.94%, Visayas got 9.94%, and Mindanao got 13.23% of the 2016
national budget and worst thing in this scenario is that Metro Manila alone got 14.27%
of it. That issue is also being cited by the President that he wanted to shift o federal
system in his term so that the tax collected by one place will be allocated solely to that
place and not the other place will benefit such.

As to the aforementioned facts my opinion is that there will always be advantage

and disadvantage as we agree and as we let it happen that the unitary form of
government will shift into a federal one. I merely disagree on the idea of changing the
form of government of our country to a federal one having five reasons. First, federalism
is being implemented in United States, a wealthy and larger country that is why it
became successful upon implementing such to their system merely because federalism
works better on larger and wealthy country which need a central government to decide
on different matters that will be supported by their local governments, who will also
address the petty issues in their place. Second, because it will add another layer of
bureaucracy wherein we had too much and it just make the scenario worst because
they have different perspective from one another that makes the process in the country
slower and more complicated for its people. Third, another way of taxation I saw the
positive effect of the perspective of the President but we can do some adjustment to our
way of taxation even we will not shift to another system of government and it may cost
lower than expected. Fourth, chances are different laws will govern the different places
of the country. Such fact will not be beneficial to our country since we don’t have that
better education system I will be difficult for the country to educate one and the other to
this kind of scenario it will be a total damage if such will happen since citizen are also
prone to transfer from one place to another for their living. Lastly, it will be expensive for
the country to shift to another system of government because it is not just a title to
adjust but a system to fix. This country has a lot of problems to address before we use
the national budget to shift to a new system. It can be a waste of money and of time
wherein we can a lot such to different matter especially on the issues under education
that must be address first. For that I personally suggest that we stick to our system of
government the only thing to visualize the change it to really make it happen like what is
going on now to the present administration regarding to drugs then to corrupt officials
which hinder the country to be successful. It is not the form of government that we had
is the main problem but the misallocation of the national budget and those corrupt
officials who kept the money for themselves instead of using it for the benefit of the
citizens and of this country.

Sources:

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/05/31/1588742/federalism-what-filipinos-need-
know

http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/124985-duterte-federalism-
regions-income

https://www.reference.com/government-politics/difference-between-unitary-federal-
state-1c01c8f72ba81fbc?qo=cdpArticles

https://www.reference.com/government-politics/meant-federal-system-government-
ba1d8a20b5088759#