The Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippines (CDP) – with its new tagline of “Partido Para Pederalismo”, has successfully hosted the 8th National Congress on the 6th of May 2017 at Marco Polo Hotel, Davao City, Philippines.

Secretary Ernesto C. Abella, who was one of the invited keynote speakers along with Senate President Aquilino “Koko" Pimentel, talked about the programs of the Duterte administration. He was glad that the CDP share the same vision with the administration and that federalism will most likely take place in the Duterte government but only when the people is willing to take an active part in such change.

With optimism, Sec. Abella said that “it takes a nation, to build a nation” and the way forward is through federalism.

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, the PDP-LABAN President, also spoke about their party’s version of roadmap to federalism.

CDP and PDP-LABAN have similar ideological underpinnings although the CDP’s position on some issues has a slight twist with that of the PDP-Laban stance: a unicameral versus a bicameral parliament; a ceremonial president versus a strong one; and the Prime Minister as Head of Government leading towards an eventual Federal system of government. The major divergence in both position is in the question of timing of the restructuring of political elements.

The CDP passed a resolution to thresh out differences of the two positions in a meeting to be represented by coordinating bodies of PDP-LABAN and CDP.000