Malacanang said “there is no problem” if Manila will no longer be the Philippine capital under federal government.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry L. Roque, Jr. issued this statement after a member of the Consultative Committee (Con-com) said that although the committee has not decided yet on the federated capital, they are “open to proposals on changing the country’s capital” since the committee has at least agreed that there is no mandate that Manila should be the capital.
Members of the Con-com were handpicked by the President to review the 1987 Constitution in a bid to shift the country’s form of government from unitary to federal.
Since his presidential campaign, President Rodrigo Duterte has been pushing for federalism, which he said will help achieve peace in Mindanao and spur economic development throughout the country in all regions and not just in “imperial” Manila.
Sought for comment, Roque said: “That’s fine because with the President from Mindanao, probably there will be no problem with that. Let the Congress decide on that.”
Con-com member Atty. Roan Libarios said in TV interview that in other countries the capital, administrative and commercial centers are in different cities.
“We can entertain some options now like for example, in Malaysia, the political capital is in Kuala Lumpur but the administrative center is in Putrajaya,” he said. “In the US, we have Washington as the admin center but the commercial center is in New York. In the Philippines, the commercial center is Metro Manila, the admin center is Metro Manila, the political center is Metro Manila, the political capital is Metro Manila,” he said.
Libarios also mentioned that Clark may be a good administrative center following the advocacy of transferring some government offices in Pampanga.
“That will ease the traffic in Metro Manila for sure. Or maybe we can have a capital in Cebu,” he said.
Duterte’s Con-com is 95-98 percent done with its draft federal Constitution which they will be submitting on July 9 to the President, the Committee’s self-imposed deadline. This is to give time for the President to review it before his State of the Nation Address on July 23.