DAVAO CITY—Three national government agencies are currently working together here to lay down the ground work for a federal setup drafted by the Constitutional Consultative Committee led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, with local advocates already looking at some barangays as “federal-ready.”
Local federal advocates here said the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Mindanao unit of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) are cooperating to localize the task of the interagency task force for the purpose.
To be localized is the Bayanihan Federalism draft of the committee, which would be consulted with the bureaucracy, the localities in the country, as well as the other federal advocate groups such as the Kilos Pederal sa Pagbabago (KPP), led by Davao lawyer Aristeo Albay and Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas (PDP), the party of President Duterte.
The two federal groups have their own versions of a federal setup, and advocates here said the task force “need to do massive consultations among them and the citizens.”
What was emerging in the discussion of the draft was the importance of the barangays as federal-ready, said former University of Mindanao Prof., Adrian Tamayo, currently director for media relations of the MinDA. The MinDA is the government socioeconomic planning body for Mindanao.
He said the barangays “are in the process of becoming a federal system.”
“The barangay as support base of the federal advocacy is one we should not miss,” Tamayo told a weekend news forum at the Basti’s Brew at Victoria Plaza Mall. He added federalism must be inclusive and “massive grassroots participation is important.”
“When the proposal to shift to federal system is done in Congress and in the ratification the yes vote prevailed, the local government executives would be there until elections are held,” said Benjamin Velarde, the DILG Region 11 focal person on federalism.
He said “once we have a federal constitution, the regions would come up with Organic Act which would be submitted to the citizens in the region for adoption.”
During this process, Velarde said, “the transition mechanism is needed to ensure smooth transfer of government control.”
“Once a warlord will challenge peace and order, the military will step in to check,” he said.