CANBERRA—The first thing President Duterte did after his inauguration was to fly to Davao City to start dismantling the superstructure dominance of “Imperial Manila” as the national capital of the unitary Philippine state for more than 400 years.

Centuries before international laws, pirates ruled the high seas, plundering and pillaging wherever they went.

Into this dangerous, unruly seascape steamed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which will be the basis for a historic court judgement on Tuesday in a dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea.

MANILA, July 9 - President Rodrigo Roa Duterte joined a few members of the Muslim community in celebrating the first Mindanao Hariraya Eid’l Fit’r 2016 held in Davao City.

In his speech, President Duterte assured the moro brothers and sisters present, that he will once again bring peace in Mindanao, but they should give him a chance to “perfect an agreement”.

He said “tatanggapin natin sa isa’t isa (we should accept among us). Let us build a nation that will be founded on peace and understanding”.

Uncovering ill-gotten wealth of government officials may soon get easier, with a proposed measure by Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson seeking to exclude them from the Bank Secrecy Law.

Lacson's Senate Bill 47 effectively removes from all public servants the "protection" afforded by Republic Act 1405, which prohibits disclosure or inquiry into bank deposits.

POVERTY, according to the United Nations, is “a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.”

Metro Manila, being the highest seat of power in the country since colonial times, naturally benefits from a centralized system of governance. But the concentration of power in the capital also perpetuates the oligarchic nature of the Philippine economy. The only way to rectify this is by means of an asymmetric model of the federal system—if critics of the prevailing system are to be believed, one that should be anchored on just entitlements for everyone and the right to self-determination, a form of rectificatory justice, given hundreds of years of neglect.

MANILA, Philippines -- Incoming Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez hopes to have the election for delegates to the Constitutional Convention together with the barangay polls and subject proposed amendments to the Charter to a referendum in time with the 2019 midterm elections.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Senate President Franklin Drilon filed a resolution pushing for constitution convention to revise the 1987 Constitution.

Drilon said there is a need to re-examine the 29-year-old Constitution and see “if it is still attuned or responsive to the demands of present-day realities."

Federalism is the long-term goal of President Duterte. I have taken it up twice. On June 5 (Federalism 101), I explained the basics of the federal system, with the intention of stimulating public debate. The following Sunday, June 12 (Federalism 102), the five most debated aspects of this system were listed. Today, let me discuss how the system can be instituted.

The Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), an organization of eminent economists, recently asked for the institution of a national ID system to promote inclusive growth, and to safeguard peace and order.

Advantages of ID system. The FEF believes that the national ID system will, among others: 1) promote financial inclusion because it will enable many poor and “unbanked” Filipinos to open bank accounts, something not possible without a government-issued ID; 2) help the government identify the beneficiaries of welfare services; 3) deter identity fraud online and offline, thereby enhancing e-commerce; and 4) prevent criminals from faking their identities.