ONE can’t help comparing lately the performance of Presidents Trump and Duterte. The US economy in the second quarter is doing great with its 4.1 percent growth and 3.9 percent employment rate. And some manufacturing jobs benefiting Trump’s political base have been coming back.

On the other hand, Philippine economic growth projected for 2018 is relatively steady at 6.7 percent and employment rates have gone down to 5.4 percent in the second quarter. Inflation, though high, is manageable. According to Cielito Habito (PDI, September 11, 2018) these are solid numbers that should give relief.

But Trump and DU30 have been fixated by matters that distract both from what are important and could have been passed on as “feel-good” narratives, driving positive news cycles in the two countries.

Trump, besieged by the investigation into the collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia that undermined the 2016 election and his legitimacy, can’t seem to extract himself from his daily tweets on the subject. And lately an op-ed article in the New York Times written by an anonymous top government official, possibly within his coterie, claiming a “resistance group” in the White House, has driven him to paranoia. His state of mind has impelled him to make careless decisions on government policies.

Meanwhile in Manila, a series of episodes has triggered a media firestorm displacing both dire and good economic news from the headlines. Senator Trillanes baited the President by calling for a Senate investigation into two of his ardent and loyal functionaries: the alleged unethical anomalous government contracts of a security company owned by Solicitor General Calida; and the alleged preferential treatment of the family of Davao billionaire Bong Go with government construction contracts. Both reek of possible corruption. The President, who puts a premium on loyalty, responded in character and took the bait.

SolGen Calida, perhaps to pre-empt the Senate investigations, dug some dirt on the senator and found evidence alleging that the senator, who was imprisoned for years for fomenting a failed coup d’état, was anomalously absolved and freed by his patron, former president PNoy. Amnesty Proclamation 75 in 2010 was defective ab initio, the SolGen claimed. It will be recalled that the same strategy was successfully used by Calida to boot out Chief Justice Sereno, on somewhat similar grounds.

Subsequently, DU30’s Proclamation 572 revoking PNoy’s Proclamation 75 was signed. Trillanes was to be arrested while the President was conveniently abroad, confident perhaps that the execution would be flawless without the proverbial “s**t hitting the fan.” But as it turned out, indeed, it did!

The Deegong was singularly impulsive in confronting his bete noire, Trillanes, in a zero-sum game, when the prudent strategy would have been to emulate President Cory’s class act against her VP Doy Laurel in 1987 — brush him off like an irritant fly. Instead, the Deegong had to indulge Trillanes who was more than happy to regain the limelight, revitalized the yellow army and newly gained adherents. In trying to reverse an amnesty on a whim, a precedent was established that could produce a chilling effect on ex-military coup plotters and rebels who came back to the fold of the law.

Both the Donald and the Deegong are faced with mid-term elections that are traditionally a referendum on their watch and could alter the power dynamics that could be noxious for both. In the US, the Democrats could capture the majority in Congress, endangering the Republicans’ hold on the Senate. This could lead to the impeachment of Trump.

Ordinary citizens can’t help but wonder, why President Duterte had to act impetuously. He needs to refocus on the challenges confronting the country today in a more circumspect and sensible manner. And problems are piling up. For one, it is not too late for the President to mitigate the high inflation rates with the help of Congress and the recalibration of his economic policies. We also have a dangerously depleted rice buffer to feed the population during anticipated destructive typhoons that could wipe out our palay granaries in the north, not to mention the displacement of large segments of population along the path of these recurring disasters. These are immediate problems demanding immediate solutions.

There is however one single issue to be addressed before the mid-term elections that could change the profile of the second half of his administration.

His cherished agenda to revise the 1987 Cory Constitution rests on the whims of a recalcitrant Senate to dance to his Cha-cha tune. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is needed to reconstitute Congress into a constituent assembly to revise the Constitution. This mid-term election presents an opportunity for him to alter the incoming Senate profile. The usual method which DU30 is wont to do is to put up his own candidates to do his bidding. However, those in his initial stable of candidates for the Senate, while true loyalists, are mostly dull personalities, in contrast to what the Filipino voters have been used to — traditional politicians with branded names, actors, comedians and celebrities.

He may have to rely on the experienced, winnable, second-termer senators brazenly allied with PDP Laban, his party that he allowed to fragment. But this could turn out to be a pact with the devil. These traditional politicians are not that dependable, and the President may find himself and his agenda hostage to their whims.

But applying his vaunted powers now and the billions of pork at his disposable, he may yet creatively buy his way to Charter revisions by changing drastically the profile of the incoming Senate. He may have to apply the old Marcosian formula: “…use persuasion as the default mode, buy them off, if the first approach is ineffective, add intimidation as a clencher. If all fails, terminate….” The last alternative of course is totally unacceptable in a democratic and morally driven society.

Often, the second step is enough. Under this dysfunctional unitary presidential system and traditional political practices, these people are cheap before election. And expensive after they sit in office.

Thus, a fallback position for the Deegong must be negotiated. Short of Charter revision, he can opt for real political reforms. Among the most critical: a) the political party and government subsidy; b) passage of freedom of information act, both still pending in both chambers; c) real electoral reforms to address vote-buying and the perversion of the electoral process; and d) an iron-clad guarantee to pass an anti-political dynasty act. (TMT column, August 8, 2018)

Charter revisions and the shift to a federal-parliamentary system inexorably dislodged from the priority of importance by the myopic exigencies of the election cycle should now be relegated as long-term targets, awaiting the second half of DU30’s term and beyond.

But his success on this medium-term endeavor will mark DU30 as a true stateman while he bides his time shaping and clearing the way for his avatar and heir apparent Sara. All these are on the assumption, of course, that no drastic alternative revolutionary ideas will intervene before midterm.

LATELY speculations have been rife as to the health of DU30. Social media has been inundated by rumors on the purpose of his recent trip: “Why is Duterte in Israel? Why is his schedule full of big holes? Is he there for medical treatment? Why are the details under wraps?”

The national conversation has deteriorated to a point where rumor and innuendo gain more currency than actual news. But such is the nature of gossips. They have more traction. They are simply salacious and easier to spread from mouth to mouth. These normally start with tidbits of truth and, depending on which side of the issue you belong to or are comfortable with, one adds a tier of prevarication or “unverifiable truth,” spreading this out, seducing others to chip in by coating another layer, and so on and so forth.

Social media has opened channels to every Tom, Dick and Harriet to vent their views on the public with nary a concern for “the truth.” This liberating power needs only an internet connection and suitable apps.

Lately items have proliferated dissecting the Deegong’s“pale, gaunt skin texture,” irregular public exposures and irritable demeanor. Even his close supporters claim to notice the same, jumping to the conclusion that indeed, the President must be sick. It’s the old “liver problem,” they surmise. And the old rumors of his taking small doses of the opioid fentanyl as a pain reliever have again been revived. All these really are, in the colorful language of the president, “just plain b____t”.

It seems to me that there are several factions feverishly involved in this deadly game of rumors and social media inaccuracies. There are those who are not happy with this regime and are identifiable as the opposition which includes the yellow army and the remnants of the old cabal of PNoy, the LP and other political parties, decimated by the earlier raids of the PDP Laban.

Another bloc is the rabid Deegong loyalists faithfully carrying the torch for his political agenda and the defenders of whatever he stands for — from the deadly war against illegal drugs to his ambiguous anti-corruption fight to a bastardized version of federalism. The latter is toxic because of the propagation of a myth that only Duterte alone and only within his watch can federalization be realized; thus, this frantic effort to put this half-cooked version in place prematurely.

An adjunct to this group is the disgruntled Duterte election campaign workers who were left out in the cold, without government appointments or rewarded sinecures in corporate boards. They are not as acrimonious as the yellow army but won’t mind chastising the president in their own perverted way.

These factions have raised this game of rumor-mongering to a dangerous level. The “antis,” convinced that the Deegong’s health is deteriorating fast and may not last the mid-term, have accelerated their attacks in all media, precipitating the near-desperate move of Duterte’s minions in the Comelec and government bureaucracy to enforce a different protocol to get Bongbong into the line of succession, shunting aside Leni Robredo.

A twist to this scenario is that the President’s allies have anticipated this all along and have in fact disingenuously positioned GMA, a hard-nosed politician, to be the Deegong’s handmaiden in pursuit of the next phase of a pragmatic political agenda — the mentoring of his heir apparent, Sara.

The permutations are intricate. One yellow army thread calculates DU30 can’t depend on the military to do his bidding despite his seeding the bureaucracy with appointed generals, colonels and assorted officers. So, the narrative flow is that he will have to rely on his old leftist comrades, those outside of Joma Sison’s coterie, nurtured by him while he was the Davao mayor, to stand as “shock troops.” Meantime, he will have to neutralize experienced coup plotters like Trillanes and his erstwhile special forces comrades by incarceration or by other means.

All these because Deegong is perceived to look, pale, frail and sickly!

For heaven’s sake, the President is not that sick! There is no incontrovertible proof that he is. He may be weakening as gleaned from his own statements and the knee-jerk denial of his spokesman, but the man is 74 years old. He will not give up his seat for Bongbong, Leni or Chiz. He has been riding on the tiger’s back to dismount safely. He loves power too much to give it all up.

This quarrel between the pro and anti DU30 is beginning to irritate a larger group comprising most of the citizens who are neither identified with the yellow army or the DDS/fist pumpers. This group has neither the inclination to hate or love the Deegong. But neither are they neutral too in the political conflicts. They are not categorized as “the undecided,” as they have made their decision in favor of the country. They too have a stake in its welfare but their concerns demanding simply good governance are being marginalized by the boisterous opposing factions.

What to me is closer to reality instead of these conjectures on the President’s health, fanciful scenarios and false narratives is that DU30’s vaunted political will may be on the wane. Where earlier in his regime, his impulses and brash language were taken as reflections of political will, as these were amplified by his two ranking mouthpieces in congress, Koko Pimentel and Bebot Alvarez. But these two are no longer there. They have been replaced by two charismatic leaders with solid bases of their own, not dependent on the Deegong’s. GMA and Sotto are his full partners, not subalterns.

With “political will” as it main impetus, federalism, as a flagship is similarly on its death throes, a victim of a conspiracy of the unelected. His appointed ConCom produced a document that his cabinet was permitted to mangle. It was revealed by some quarters that for the past 10 months, federalism was never even discussed seriously in a cabinet meeting.

NEDA stepped in with its 15-year roadmap only recently when it is by function the custodian of long-term programs. As a priority, NEDA should have taken the initiative from the very beginning to embrace it as its own. Either NEDA was not in tune with DU30’s agenda or it was allowed to sabotage this program; in which case the Deegong is complicit.

But all these are water under the bridge now that the political realities are in a flux. DU30 will have to sound the clarion call once more for his DDS/fist pumpers to assemble to get his selected candidates into elective positions this midterm, if he is to salvage what is left of his agenda and avoid being a lame duck. I doubt this time they will heed his call without the traditional enticements. And this could be tragic. It is almost a truism that Philippine polarizing presidents could end their term in perfectly good health – but find themselves incarcerated.

IN the coming days, midterm election matters will dominate center stage and out goes federalism from the airwaves, the mass and social media. This election will be a referendum on President Duterte. Corruption, human rights violations, drug killings, the incompetence of his men and even the unstable persona of the President himself will be exploited by the opposition to pummel the Deegong and his allies. Except that in our byzantine politics, alliances, friends and foes are intermingled and therefore many are at a loss as to their standing with the President.

Take the unelected DDS and Fist Pumpers whose loyalty to the President may have touched shaky ground lately as a result of his consigning federalism to the back-burner. They may have to reinsert themselves into the political conversation while pining for presidential attention. It seems that those left behind, although grudgingly supportive of him but not rewarded with government sinecures, may now have to extract their pound of flesh before being persuaded to campaign for the president’s choices. The Senate posts are particularly sensitive as the next fight for Charter revisions will be in that chamber, if ever the President still has the audacity to push through with it. DU30’s intermittent histrionics, however —“I’m tired…I want to resign” — weaken his supporters’ resolve and embolden the Yellow army and its allies. One begins to wonder where his vaunted “political will” is parked.

The ascendancy of GMA and pragmatic political maneuverings have begun to plague the President’s motley alliance. PDP Laban, DU30’s nominal party is seen to be fragmenting. The eclipse of its two top lieutenants, Koko Pimentel and Bebot Alvarez, occurred without the President lifting a finger. And the tolerated appearance of the splinter Davao-Mindanao PDP Laban in the political scene, challenging the legitimacy of the Pimentel-Alvarez leadership, has dealt a major though not fatal blow to the ruling party. Headed by Bik Bik Garcia, an original party stalwart and a colleague of Nene Pimentel — oppositionists both in the defunct Marcos Interim Batasan Pambansa (IBP) — they may have a legitimate complaint. The indiscriminate wholesale recruitment of “trapos” from other political parties run counter to the ideological precepts that the original PDP Laban hold dear. The true believers were shunted aside in the running of the political party, now dominated by the remnants and discards of LP, LDP, LAKAS-NUCD-CMD-KAMPI, UNA and assorted political mercenaries.

But what could be fatal is the ascendancy of Mayor Sara to prominence as head of the original local political party of the father. The President’s spokesman, Harry Roque Jr. declared that “Hugpong (ng Pagbabago), not PDP-Laban, is the President’s party. Hugpong had always been his political party ever since he ran for mayor of Davao City 23 years ago.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 7, 2018) The cat is now out of the bag!

The 100 or so PDP Laban congressmen may have begun to abandon ship and secure their lifeboats with Hugpong. And a cloud of fear and insecurity may be descending on the PDP Laban nominees in government sinecures and the bureaucracy — Usecs, Asecs, department heads and government corporate boards.

But the Deegong seems not to be overwhelmed by these developments. His disciples attribute these to his political genius insisting that he may in fact be the puppeteer using his surrogates — GMA at the HOR and daughter Sara at Hugpong now working an alliance with Imee Marcos of KBL. But the ominous elevation of the Marcoses within DU30’s circle could signal the degradation of PDP Laban, as this party’s pedigree can be traced back to the darkest period of the dictatorship. The sycophants of course will dismiss this as mere conjecture.

In any case, in a unitary-presidential system, nurturing this traditional political climate, elections are merely opportunities for power players and their oligarchic allies to consolidate their forces and unscrupulous politicians to sell their loyalty to the highest bidder.

Senator Lacson has intimated that there are billions of pesos worth of “pork barrel” inserted into this year’s budget. In an election where a congressional seat would cost from P100-P200 million and a Senate seat at least P500 million, the Deegong has most of the chips while holding winning hands.

This is the system that causes legislators to flock to the party of the President, expecting entitlements, weakening the party system, systemic evils the Centrist Democrats have been agitating to reform all along as preconditions to a shift from the unitary to parliamentary federal system.

To encapsulate the issues, I will quote a PR practitioner and a political technocrat, Malou Tiquia: “In the past six years, no political reform has been successfully introduced in the country. Various measures are pending in congress, from political party to campaign finance reform to banning turncoats, etc. The effort to achieve reform in our politics has not taken root. This is the problem we have as we move towards federalism…”

I quote from one of my old blogs: “Political parties are key actors and the backbone of democracy in modern societies. They are organizations that aggregate the interests and sources behind policies. They gain power and authority by engaging in elections.

They serve as a linking and leading mechanism in politics being a means of mobilization of the masses as well as the socialization of leaders. Furthermore, political parties are a channel of control, without which citizens are not represented in governing institutions, cannot control power and participate in decision-making. Thus — in the long term — they cannot prevent the abuse of power.

A party must write a unique platform or vision of governance with a set of principles and strategies. This vision defines the ideological identity of that party; and members are expected to go by these platforms as political parties offer the direction of government. Voters must be given a choice as to who must govern them based on what candidates and their parties stand for.”

Unfortunately, we do not have such parties in our country. Ours are funded by self-proclaimed candidates, party bigwigs and oligarchs. They dictate what programs and platforms, if any, to present to voters and who would run for public office. Patronage politics is the reason behind the massive exodus of members from one political party to another. Political manna constantly flows from the incumbent regime and produces a condition where politicians are PDP Laban today, LP the past regime, Lakas-NUCD before that and KBL during the dictatorship. Tomorrow, they may flock toward Hugpong.

IF we go by the headlines, federalism could be dead, or put in the back burner until some future date, perhaps in the next generations to come—a sad prospect. The election circus fever has caught up with us and the Yellow Army has won this one. The 1987 Cory Constitution by the grace of God, will now continue to guide our governance. This is a nightmare, true, especially for federalism advocates.

This conjecture is not without basis. As many suspected from the very start, the federalism champion, Mayor Duterte mined the frustration of the people in the periphery by pitting them against the center. This was an emotional and classic political strategy. It got him where he wanted to be — at the top of the heap. But let me quote one who has also arrived at a similar conclusion, but just a little too late. Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, a member of DU30’s constitutional committee, is quoted by John Nery in the Philippine Daily Inquirer: “Let’s stop fooling ourselves,’ Aquino wrote. That necessary task begins with understanding that, for President Duterte, ‘federalism’ is only a political project: a reason to travel the country to project himself as a presidential candidate in 2015, an excuse to stay in power in 2018. No amount of prodigious writing or furious debating will change that.” (PDI, August 14, 2018). Ouch! Harsh words from an ally but look at what really happened and its implications on the unfolding Philippine political drama.

What really happened
To start fulfilling one of his flagship programs, as early as December 7, 2016, DU30 signed EO 10 creating the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution (ConCom). But members were only appointed in February of 2018, an inordinate delay of 14 months. Meantime, the DILG tasked to conduct nationwide IEC managed only sporadic sorties as it was plagued by squabbles and purges at its top leadership and inconsistency in messaging. Civil society and federalism advocates urgently filled in the gaps, but the models presented to the public were incoherent, exacerbated by the President himself whose interpretation of freeing the regions, provinces and LGUs from the control of central government was slightly erroneous. For instance, he was passionately advocating for the adoption of the French model, when France is not even a federal system.

He was not perceived to be interested in serious political and electoral reforms save that of shifting from the unitary government to a federal set-up. He therefore never delved into more important reforms of our political party system which is the main derivative of patronage politics and political dynasties that proliferated in the country for generations. This is evinced by his nonchalant attitude toward the splintering of the PDP Laban and countenancing the rise of his original local party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) with his daughter as heir apparent.

Political dynasties ascendant
Without these essential reforms, shifting to a federal system would allow political dynasties to gain much tighter control of a much smaller population and area in alliance with the oligarchy — a scenario the President may have anticipated with his own children in active politics.

So, we see today the ascendance of progeny following a similar path. Mayor Sara has of late been leveraging her bloodline to build up her own constituency and power base on the carcass of her father’s erstwhile dominant political party; or at least with his acquiescence on the PDP Laban’s emasculation.

The Deegong, without lifting a finger, has allowed the castration of his top subalterns in the two houses of Congress; the reemergence of his ally Gloria Arroyo, an astute traditional politician, as head of the Lower House; and the rehabilitation of the Marcoses through a coalition with the charismatic Imee and the rebirth of the Kilusang Bagong Lupunan (KBL); and perhaps the forced appropriation of the vice presidency by the son and namesake of the dictator.

Such is the convoluted and fluid alliances now facing the country midterm. Also, the Senate, the other half of the institution singularly tasked to revise the 1987 Constitution, is not attuned to the President’s wishes, if he was ever serious in the first place, and may let the deadline pass. The window of opportunity for political climate change is closing fast. The mid-term election mode is upon us and is producing frenzied political jockeying, and this trumps constitutional revisions. And even the allies of the Deegong have pronounced federalism dead!

But the greater tragedy is that without Charter revisions, we will be condemned to the generations-old status quo of a unitary-presidential system. There will be no shift to the superior parliamentary system and no liberalization of the economy. Which means, the traditional political dynasties with their alliance with the oligarchy intact will continue to rule the roost.

One alternative in this almost hopeless scenario is for the DDS and fist-pumpers to just put their faith in the President. Go the traditional political route and pick the electoral alliance that can best push for a Charter revision agenda post mid-term. This “kapit sa patalim” scenario is in the hope that the people who are subsequently elected to power will adhere to the Charter revisions that the advocates want in the remaining half of the Deegong’s term. But going into the “lame-duck mode,” the elected ones may extract more concessions from the President as a quid pro quo for pushing his agenda, although he may have already anticipated this with the humongous insertions of “pork barrel” in the current budget.

Trad-pol track
This trad-pol track is double-edged at best as there is no guarantee that the next political players will not be co-opted by the system, perforce perpetuating the same political structures. In which case, the federalism adherents may have to drastically shed their expectations and go the long and slow but painful route.

This was the formula arrived at by the Centrist Democratic Movement (CDM) on its ambitious plans of creating a political party (CDP). The same recipe that PDP followed when it started in Mindanao in the 1980s prior to its coalition with Ninoy Aquino’s Laban in Manila. Perhaps, we need to go back to the basics and go long term; build a more responsible political community; restart a political movement and a political party of young still unadulterated minds based on ideological precepts; and hang on to it for dear life.

The alternative to this is simply unacceptable. The revolutionary government being proffered by the young hotheads is no guarantee that we can go where we want to go, not with the President now suspected to be half-cocked on the idea of constitutional revisions and the viability of revgov itself.

And the last alternative is for the federal parliamentary advocates to give up and leave things to fester so our people will suffer more and hopefully see the error of their ways. But by that time, we the advocates, are probably all dead and the country has become a province of China.

LATELY, an ugly public clash among some cabinet members and the DDS/fist pumpers erupted, poisoning further an already polluted discourse on federalism. And true to form, the Yellow army with their Senate allies took advantage of the breach threatening to derail whatever is advocated by their bete noire.

It started with an initiative from a comely, unlettered but a social media heavyweight reducing the federalism concept into a song and dance number with heavy sexual undertones. Her supporters praised her utterly asinine effort as one that put federalism on center stage, irrespective of whether the concept was understood or not. This reduced a complex advocacy into a vulgar spectacle. Many among the true believers cringe at half-cocked attempts by favored Malacañang sycophants tasked to disseminate the concepts to elevate the political dialogue to a respectable higher level.

Then came a series of pronouncements by the President’s alter egos publicly contradicting his stand, or so it seemed. The defense secretary “…expressed belief that the country is not yet ready to shift to a federal form of government…(since) a lot of Filipinos don’t understand or are not yet ready for a change in the type of government that we have and still needs to be educated about it.”

In this case therefore, let the advocates redouble their efforts for a massive information and education campaign, making them ready for federalism, the military personnel included. You don’t discard a DU30 flagship issue because of the inability of the bureaucracy to do its part, inform and educate.

But the good Secretary’s non sequitur of an argument has already been belied by similar past instances that the Filipino may not have also understood quite well the unitary government written in the 1935 Commonwealth, 1973 Marcos and 1987 Cory constitutions.

“What we need to understand about the Filipino is for the past 300 years of colonialism, they trust their patrons and put their faith in their leaders to do the right thing by them. They will take federalism and the charter change on faith. And you can’t sell them short. They are a magnificently discerning race.” (“Federalism-Cha-cha! going nowhere?” TMT, July 25, 2018)

Then on August 9, 2018 the Philippine Daily Inquirer came out with the headline “Economic managers cite risks of federalism,” citing Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd’s statement to the Senate finance committee that the Philippines’ investment grade credit ratings, which make it cheaper for the country to borrow money, would “go to hell” if the proposed shift to federalism proceeds.


To add fuel to the fire, Dominguez was quoted as saying: “…the national government may have to lay off 95 percent of its employees, or reduce the funds for the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program by 70 percent, or a combination of both.”

What could have been a harmless but indiscreet gesture of public plea by the economic managers to the ConCom group for clarification was instead twisted and converted by the Yellow press into a form of lese majeste, gaining political points and embarrassing the Deegong.

Dominguez had to lamely appeal to the federalism advocates by calling “…for a dialogue on the federalism issue…making it clear that while the economic team is not against federalism, it has the responsibility to point out the ambiguous and unclear provisions in the proposed draft charter…”

Yes, but the harm had been done. In his salvo, ConCom member Fr. Ranhilio Aquino said that Dominguez had practically snubbed the ConCom hearings, sending instead incompetent underlings, reflecting perhaps the reluctance of the DoF to be on board DU30’s federalism initiative.

All this hullabaloo could have been avoided if our Centrist (CDP/CDPI) draft, the 2005 ConCom with erstwhile President GMA’s imprimatur, had been seriously considered by the CJ Puno-led 2018 ConCom; and if they were not fixated by their comfortably familiar presidential-federal position as a cure-all, fulfilling their desire for instant gratification; and if the ConCom were more evenly staffed with professionals, economists and businessmen, rather than being heavily bloated with lawyers and academics.

The Centrist position was to shift first to parliamentary government before attempting to shift to a federal structure, allowing time for the provinces and regions to form themselves into cohesive federal states. And the main instrument that will guide them through this process is the parliament through the “federalizing commission,” similar to the current ConCom’s proposed “federal intergovernmental commission.”

This commission is where the myriad economic and financial questions are to be dissected, clarified and acted upon, not this prematurely plaguing the debate with toxic postulates and premises. The Centrist draft focused on the step-by-step process of shifting from a unitary to parliamentary government to autonomous territories, and eventually to federal states.

Our view is that the future constitutionally mandated federalization commission must be authorized wide leeway to look into both the political and economic structural viability; the sourcing of funds and the taxation powers; the sharing of income and expenditures and a host of concerns that midwives the birthing of a Federal Republic. The particulars are to be threshed out by parliament when the organic laws for the federal states are originated. These details are not meant to be all written in the constitution, only the guiding principles. This is what a constitution is meant to be. And this is yet to be written by the constitutional assembly (ConAss) in Congress. What the President’s allies are now quarreling over is a draft proffered by the 2018 ConCom, however incompetently written.

Even a feature of the ConCom draft delineating the political boundaries of the federal states or regions are simply for illustration and will be finalized by parliament and the local people themselves negotiating and agreeing among each other. Even the seat of the federal state will be a bone of contention if written in the constitution or imposed by parliament.

On the other hand, leaving it to the provincial local executives to propose the future federal states will open the issue to the self-serving local leaders and political dynasties, like the proposal of the League of Provinces, pushing for 81 federal states. How stupid is that?

Playing with figures today and quarrelling over them before the parameters are decided in a totally new federal-parliamentary paradigm is akin to looking cross-eyed through the lens of a unitary government set-up.

My unsolicited advice is to heed the cool admonition of the lone economist member of ConCom, Art Aguilar, that their ConCom draft is there for all to tear up and mangle, as this is what a draft is for. And to paraphrase him, I would suggest that to discard it and a review the Centrist 2009 ConCom draft (with some amendments) sanctioned by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, now Speaker of the House.

Part 4 of a series
THE following is lifted almost verbatim from an earlier column that I wrote, “How do we change from unitary to federal” (The Manila Times, August 25, 2017). This was also presented to the Malacañang press corps in September 2017, and the Centrist proposal draft constitution has been presented individually to the members of the two houses of Congress. (This can be downloaded from our website www.cdpi.asia)

In the Centrist proposal, the process of converting the Philippines to a federal republic comes immediately after the Philippine parliament is put in place (refer to “Part 3: Presidential to parliamentary – the preconditions (The Manila Times, August 8, 2018).

“Federalism is a multi-step process that must be clearly written in the constitution. We can’t just legislate federalism or just write in the constitution that we are a de facto federal republic tomorrow. What we can write in the new constitution when we revise the 1987 Cory Constitution is “the framework,” the step-by step process, the roadmap, as it were, to attaining the Philippine Federal Republic, beyond the term of President Duterte and even in the next decade or so. So, even with DU30, the main sponsor gone from the political scene, we will have planted today the seeds of our Federal Republic.”

The Centrist proposal’s “out of the box” version of a federal state has its roots on the concept of autonomy, subsidiarity and self-determination.

In our version, we allow the provinces and highly urbanized component cities to evolve first to an autonomous territory with the decision to group themselves coming from the grassroots below. Self-determination is central to this decision. Although the Philippines may eventually end up with from 5-12 federal states, parliament can’t impose on the current provinces and cities. They are merely given the general guidelines for such formation based on criteria to be embedded in the revised constitution, such as common culture, language, custom, contiguous areas and economic viability. Therefore, it is necessary that these contiguous provinces/cities need to negotiate with each other.

In other words, the citizens within a contiguous territory, with common language and culture must decide in a referendum that they become completely autonomous. Petitions are passed by their local legislative assemblies (sanggunian).

Once a referendum is passed, within a year, parliament must enact an organic law defining the autonomous territory’s land area, powers, obligations and sources of revenues (taxes). The autonomous territory then writes its own constitution to be approved in a plebiscite by its own people. If 3/5 (60 percent) of the provinces and component cities of the Philippines become autonomous territories, then the Federal Republic of the Philippines is created.

1st stage: Creation of autonomous territories
The first stage has already begun and will end in a plebiscite in May 2019 to coincide with the midterm elections. Therefore, we elect all officials still under the old 1987 Constitution. Or it can be written in the transitory provisions of the revised constitution that these officials, elected under the 1987 constitution, will hold office only until the first parliamentary elections on May 2020 under the new federal Constitution or the members of the two houses of Congress become automatic members of a unicameral parliament by May 2020. The 12 months between May 2019 to May 2020 should be used in preparation towards the transition to a parliamentary-federal system.

2nd stage: May 2020-2025
Upon the establishment of the unicameral parliament, it may create a federalization commission to oversee the negotiations and allow the evolution of the provinces and highly urbanized cities from what they are today into autonomous territories (using as template the BOL-BAR). The local government units (LGUs) shall negotiate with one another the establishment of their federal state based on their geographical location, population, history, language and cultural similarities, considerations of their natural resources and wealth, and the selection of the seat of the state capital.

The result of these negotiations shall be incorporated in detail and enacted in an organic law by parliament within a year of a petition to be subsequently approved by the constituents of the newly formed autonomous territory in a referendum.

Some of the provinces and cities will be ahead of the pack and some will be laggards, therefore the development of a federal republic will not be uniform. All these need time and with guidance from parliament.

The incumbent President DU30, now in a parliamentary form of government, shall continue his dual presidential role as head of state and head of government (2020-2022) leading and presiding over the new unicameral parliament.

3rd stage: May of 2022
By May 2022, President DU30 steps down as head of state, as is clearly his intention, and a new president is elected by the parliament to serve the remaining term of President DU30; or ends his term by 2025. (This can be provided for in the transitory provisions of the new constitution, but a controversial one that contravenes his wishes.)

4th stage: May of 2025-2030
The second regular parliamentary election under the new constitution is held by 2025 with a five-year term to 2030. We then have a new prime minister and a new president.

It is our contention that if 3/5 (60 percent) of the provinces and highly urbanized cities become autonomous territories with organic acts, then the Federal Republic of the Philippines is created. By our reckoning this will happen in 2028.

Looking into the theoretical aspect of federalism and the models of successful federal governments in the world, the principles of self-determination, solidarity, autonomy, subsidiarity, and cooperation between the national and the federal states and among the states themselves are essential in sustaining a Federal Republic.

As I have often expounded: “This roadmap to federalism is thus designed to mitigate the shock to the body politic arising from the purging of traditional political practices through the immediate passage of reform legislation now pending in Congress. Furthermore, the critical process of transition to a parliamentary-federal republic has to be in place in the revised constitution so the assurance of its continuity is safeguarded by the constitution itself even beyond the term of the current president. To reiterate, the Centrist roadmap simply adapts to the exigencies of real change or “tunay na pagbabago,” the rallying slogan of the Deegong, accelerating change where feasible without unnecessarily upsetting institutions and government services.”

Part 3 of a series
MY earlier columns presented a rationale for dismantling the century’s old dysfunctional American democratic political structures imposed on us by our colonizers. (Manila Times, August 1, 2018 “Parliamentary system and the reign of Gloria”; August 11,18 & 25, 2016, “How do we change from unitary to federal”).

We submit that the unitary-presidential system be replaced with a federal-parliamentary by revising the 1987 Constitution. The arguments we proffered simply are that the unitary-presidential system has evolved cultural behavioral practices inimical to the greater majority. It has not substantially eradicated poverty in the country, particularly in the periphery. Over the decades, stark impoverishment became the petri dish on which democratic deficits plaguing our country today are incubating; from the emergence of traditional political patronage practices, allowing the proliferation of political dynasties that preserve political power among and within families; to the culture of impunity, corruption and criminality; to the rise of an oligarchy that tends to control both political and economic power. And in a vicious cycle, these sordid conditions in turn induced a poverty trap that many of our people seldom escaped from. To break this, a new paradigm needs to be introduced; alter the form and system of government and the deeply embedded cultural deficits will begin to transform.

A federal system where the local governments in the regions are freed from the clutches of central authority and control and allowed to flourish on their own terms is a preferred alternative. And to complement the federal structure, we propose a parliamentary government, replacing our aberrant presidential government.

The assumption to power of the Deegong championing federalism has popularized the slogan without so much as understanding the concept. His original pronouncements on his first SONA in 2016 was his take on parliamentary-federal government modeled after France with a “strong” president, enamored perhaps by an iconic leader like Charles De Gaulle. But France is not even federal. It is a unitary state. Thus, his 2018 Con-Com proposed a hybrid presidential/parliamentary system.

However, the belief of his unknowing supporters that federalism is a “package-deal” and can be applied all at once in one fell swoop of the revisionist pen, is mistaken. We need to de-couple these two components to understand and internalize which is more critical that must come first.

The Citizen’s Movement for Federal Philippines (CMFP), the pedigree of CDP/CDPI (the Centrist groups) since the early 1990s have always maintained that a shift to parliamentary government be done first — before a full shift to a federal system. The logic here is simple. After 100 years of political malpractices and defects in governance, the political parties became the repositories of these perversions and thus are the primary perpetrators of this decadence on the body politic.

A case for immediate shift to parliamentary government is much easier once the various appropriate pending bills on political party reforms are enacted into law. These laws will effectively penalize and eliminate turncoatism (or the switching of political parties, “balimbing,” “political butterfly”); enforce transparent mechanisms providing and regulating campaign financing to eliminate graft, corruption, and patronag (corporate and individual contributions); and allow state subsidy to professionalize political parties by supporting their political education and campaign initiatives.

The Centrists therefore presented four preconditions while the process of constitutional revisions is ongoing; and to ease the shift from unitary-presidential to federal-parliamentary

1) The passage of the Political Party Development and Financing Act (SB 3214 and HB 6551);

2) Passage of the Freedom of Information bill (FOI) to enforce transparency in all transactions in government;

3) Initiate electoral reforms that put in place a system that will prevent the travesty of the will of the populace (i.e. rampant vote buying); and

4) Enact a law banning political dynasties as mandated in Article II Section 26 of the Constitution. This last item may have to be enacted as a self-executory provision in the revised constitution, considering the shameless disregard for its passage by Congress for decades.

As I have written in past columns, if these preconditions are not put in place and we proceed with a transition to a federal government, then we may have a government much worse than we have now.

Political party reform, the most important among the four preconditions, is imperative for the three draft constitutions being debated today: Centrist federal-parliamentary, PDP Laban hybrid-parliamentary and Con-com presidential-federal. Ample time is needed for the political parties to reorganize and reorient their ideological perspectives based on the new paradigm which is really the core operating program of a well-functioning government.

To reiterate, the Centrist preference for a parliamentary government is really based on the model’s proclivity to prevent gridlock in a unicameral body. The government of the day is checked by the opposition with a unique “question hour” that requires cabinet members who are likewise members of parliament to defend on the floor any policy questions. This ensures accountability and transparency on the part of the majority on all government transactions. On the part of the minority, a “shadow cabinet” parallels the work of the majority mirroring the positions of each member of the cabinet allowing considerations of alternatives. More importantly, all these promote cohesive and disciplined political parties, allowing a broader base and inclusive politics through a multi-party system.

The parliament is a critical component in the installation of federal states or regions as in our Centrist proposals it will oversee the step by step formation of the federal republic through initially, the creation of autonomous territories. The birthing of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR) model through the passage of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) bears witness to the intricacies and difficulties of the process and the many decades over which it was hammered into reality. The BAR could be the template upon which the national parliament will establish the future federal states of the country. But by then, the early kinks, failures and lessons of institutionalizing an autonomous region will have been learned and internalized.

In the Centrist roadmap (next week’s article in this series), this process will commence from the first proposed parliamentary elections in 2020, provided the constituent assembly AAcomposed of the two houses of Congress will take time out from their shameful bickering and will have their work finished in time for the 2019 plebiscite.

(Next week: The process of federalization, the roadmap/framework)

Part 2 on constitutional revisions
LAST week, President Duterte’s SONA, as in the past, would have been the centerpiece of the opening of Congress and his chance to claim bragging rights on the current state of the nation’s health. No details were spared starting with the “mini SONAs” conducted by the President’s henchmen in the various venues the previous weeks, to the hiring of an events director to oversee the President’s tour de force. It was, however, eclipsed by a naked power play by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s (GMA) loyalists catapulting her to the speakership. But this was not totally unexpected although its timing was deplorable as it stole the thunder from the Deegong.

Gloria’s ascendancy was at the expense of Pantaleon ‘Bebot’ Alvarez. In my column “Games of thrones” (The Manila Times, March 15, 2018), I wrote: “…Alvarez’s… maneuvers were less than elegant: a petty and uncalled-for quarrel with an agricultural oligarch as an upshot of a catfight between their girlfriends; a puerile squabble with the daughter-mayor of his principal; and the snubbing of the ‘original PDP Laban purists.”

“According to the PDP Laban originals and purists, he is the epitome of everything that is wrong with the political party system in the country. In fact, rumors are rife that the factions arrayed against the Speaker are now gearing up to make him a one-time representative of the 2nd district of Davao del Norte, effectively toppling him from his perch.”

The portents to me were clear then and in “Part 2, Games of Thrones” (Times, March 22, 2018), I wrote: “And here awaits one astute politician who may have calculated these permutations and may now be positioned for any eventuality. In the midst of all these, it is obvious that the Deegong needs a surrogate that stands out from among the dregs of the carcasses of the other parties now populating his supermajority; one with a similar charisma, possessing qualities acquired uniquely by those who have attained the pinnacle of power and grasped the parameters of its flaws and possibilities.

We have such a one. Today Gloria stands at the cusp of a chaotic political tableau, poised on the side stage, awaiting the call. She is no doubt a quintessential traditional politician, steeped in the arcana of Philippine politics, knowledgeable of the flaws and strengths of the system.”

Thus, it came to pass!

But this article is not about the downfall of Bebot or the ascendancy of Gloria. This is about the underlying political structures that allow such distortions to the democratic process. Our centuries-old presidential-unitary system of government is susceptible to this kind of eruption as the system feeds on political power anchored on personalities rather than ideologically defined party politics. Both protagonists are members of PDP-Laban and both are traditional politicians although Bebot and his cohorts had recruited Gloria from her Lakas Party to bolster his own faction of PDP Laban, perhaps against the then Senate President Koko Pimentel and his PDP Laban purists. If we were in a parliamentary government, this sordid event would not have been executed in such an inelegant fashion.


But what is a parliamentary government in contrast to a presidential one. Read last week’s column (“Federalism Cha-cha going nowhere?” July 25, 2018) as a background for the following excerpts taken from the CENTRIST Proposals; the version of the CDP, CDPI, Lakas, 2005 ConCom draft replacing the Cory 1987 Constitution.

In a parliamentary government, the legislative and the executive powers are fused and vested in a unicameral parliament; and the head of government is the prime minister, with his cabinet recruited from among the members of parliament. The republican concept imposed on us by America on the fictional independence of the three branches of the executive, legislative and judiciary is drastically modified in the parliamentary system.

The president is the head of state, elected from among the members of parliament; and upon taking his oath he ceases to be a member of parliament and any political party. He serves a term of five years. The head of state is meant to be the unifying symbol of the Filipino nation and his powers are largely ceremonial.

A unicameral parliament is composed of elected members from the parliamentary districts, plus those chosen on the basis of “proportional representation” by the political party according to the votes each party obtained in the preceding elections. In the Centrist version, the two houses of Congress, the Senate and House of Representatives are replaced by a parliament.

The members chosen by the political parties (party list) shall constitute 30 percent of the total number of members of parliament and the seats reserved solely for the “less privileged”— farmers, fisherfolks, workers, etc. Party lists, as we have today under our anomalous 1987 Constitution, are not meant to run separately and outside of a nationally accredited party.

A parliamentary government is also called a “party government” because of the pivotal role of political parties in parliamentary elections, governance and public administrations, which means Congress should now pass the “Political Party Development Act” archived by the PNoy administration.

As proposed by the Centrists, any elective official who leaves his political party before the end of the term shall forfeit his seat and will be replaced by his political party.

A mechanism to replace a prime minister is for parliament to withdraw its confidence and choose a successor by a majority vote of all its members. This “vote of no confidence” is a much easier process of replacing a head of government in a parliamentary system than the current impeachment process.

The Centrists have always maintained that we shift to parliamentary government first before transitioning into a federal system, given that the federalization process is more complicated. This is contained in the Centrist Roadmap Toward a Federal Philippines which has undergone deep study and research and was codified by the 2005 Consultative Commission (ConCom) under the tutelage of President Arroyo, now the Speaker of the House.

“MORE Pinoys oppose Cha-cha, Pulse Asia” went PDI’s screaming headline. “Senators on Monday warned the administration against forcing the amendment of the Constitution and federalism on the nation after the latest Pulse Asia poll showed that 67 percent of Filipinos opposed President Rodrigo Duterte’s priority political enterprise.”

This is fake news. But, so what? Then we will just have to work harder to add to the 33 to 48 percent of Filipinos who already approve of Charter change. But in the end, they will have to pass judgment on the changes to the Constitution through a plebiscite, anyway. And this is the constitutionally mandated democratic process, no more, no less.

But if the Senate refuses to participate in the process using the criminally concocted Pulse Asia figures as an excuse (the real figures: 48 percent in favor, 37 percent against, 15 percent don’t know), then they are dangerously playing with fire. But this time, they may contend not just with the wrath of the timid voters, but a deadlier foe — we the frustrated passionate advocates who have been pushing for these changes for so long, led by a leader who by the way is a minority president himself, voted in by only 16 million voters out of a population of 110 million. Using the same logic, DU30 has only the acceptance of 15 percent of the population of the Philippines. But he is the legitimate president.

We can play along with numbers until hell freezes over, but this point is irrelevant. All surveys are mere snapshots of a moment. These are not immutable numbers beating the federalists to capitulation. This will even motivate us more. But if the 23 senators, refuse to perform their mandate, then they will provoke us to weaponize our motives. And God help us all. This is not a threat; this is a promise!
The Senate, their puppeteers among the oligarchy and the traditional political dynasts have always closed ranks when the status quo is threatened. And there is no greater menace that disturbs their equanimity than revising their elitist 1987 Cory Constitution.
While dismantling the communication and electrical power monopolies then President Ramos initiated PIRMA in 1997 and aroused the fury of Cory, who summoned her old sentimental ally, Cardinal Sin and the Catholic hierarchy. The Protestant Ramos never had a chance. There were other attempts, ERAP’s Concord in 1999 (he was cut down by impeachment and incarcerated); and GMA’s shift to federal parliamentary and a liberalized economy proposed by her 2005 ConCom, did not pass muster and derailed too by the Senate.

These past presidents’ motives were suspect, attributing to them a desire to extend their presidential terms; the same tactics are being used now from that old familiar playbook. But the accusations can’t gain traction as only the Deegong was transparent on his promise to shift the country’s system to federalism through the revision of the 1987 Constitution, announcing it from the get-go of his candidacy.

But the ugly hydra heads of the political dynasties, the oligarchy and the Catholic hierarchy have emerged openly, gathering their forces to once again thwart a legitimate act of the populace.

But what is this unholy triumvirate really protecting? It is the status quo, the unitary-presidential system. This is the type of government that has existed in the Philippines for a century from the time the Americans imposed on us their concept of republicanism and democracy.

The system’s main feature is a political structure where power and authority are concentrated in the national central government (the Center). The regional and local government units (LGUs) are subordinate and exercise only such powers allowed to them by the Center. There is a massive transfer of resources to the Center and the decision as to their uses and applications. Critical revenues directed centrally and collected locally are invariably expensed from the top; detached from the actual needs below. Planning and programs for the communities are characterized by a top-to-bottom approach divorced from the realities on the ground; and impairing gravely the decision-making process.

This subservience of the LGUs to the Center, stifles local initiative and resourcefulness, perpetuates dependency and reinforces traditional political patronage relationship and stunts local development. This explains the proliferation of political dynasties permeating 70 percent to 80 percent of Congress and the LGUs. Empirical evidence shows the poorest provinces are controlled by political dynasties some of which have existed for generations.

Complimentary to the unitary system is the presidential type of government with three distinctive branches. In theory, the executive power is vested in the president who is the head of government and the state; legislative powers is entrusted to a bicameral Congress consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives; and judicial power is conferred on a Supreme Court and the lower courts created by law. But in practice, our present system is characterized by intermittent gridlock between and among the two houses of Congress and the presidency, especially when these elected leaders all come from different political parties.

As head of the executive branch, the universally elected president to whom vast powers are vested reigns supreme. But the path to the presidency is fraught with distortions to the democratic process. The biggest one is the “ingrained corruption” in the very expensive nationwide elections where the presidential candidate must depend on a network of local governments and personally oriented, not ideologically directed political parties. The presidential candidate must trade the future largesse of his office for the support of these political parties and LGU executives. And the billions needed to fund this endeavor open an aperture for the moneyed few and the oligarchy to surreptitiously invest in a presidential run. When successful, they exact their pounds of flesh to recoup their expenses through regulatory capture and other modes of corruption.

All these are enshrined in the 1987 Cory Constitution. And this is what we, a motley alliance of parliamentary federalists, hybrid-presidential parliamentarians, liberal economists, social market economists — all agents of change — must dismantle. And we must work together, now!

ON Tuesday, July 10, 2018, Philstar.com came up with a news item: “SWS: Duterte’s satisfaction rating plunges across all areas”

Wednesday, July 11, The Manila Times bannered on its front page, “SWS poll: Duterte’s rating suffers 11-point drop in Q2”

Friday, July 13, PhilStar has this on its front page: “Duterte still most approved, trusted gov’t official —Pulse Asia.”

Disparities are wide between the two pollsters’ figures. Apparently, the SWS survey was done from June 27 to 30, yielding a +45net satisfaction rating. SWS still considers this a “good rating” for the President. The Pulse Asia survey, done earlier, from June 15 to 21, registered approval and trust ratings of 88 percent and 87 percent, respectively, for Du30.

Rappler.com tried to explain the disparity in the figures: “The results of a Pulse Asia survey show President Rodrigo Duterte recording his highest approval rating yet — before his controversial remark on God that triggered a public backlash.”

True enough, upon checking, the President’s blasphemous speech was delivered on June 22, Friday, the last day that Pulse Asia conducted its survey. It is therefore probable that his declining numbers were captured by SWS, but not Pulse Asia. Rappler, despite its perceived bias against this regime, could be right after all. You just don’t mess with God!

The Deegong responded quite differently on the differing results. On SWS where the figures show a decline, he proclaimed: “I don’t care. Make it 15. Wala na ako dyan. (It does not matter to me anymore.) It does not interest me at all.” He shrugged off the results of the survey and even expressed readiness to step down from his post.


On the Pulse Asia positive results, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the Palace was grateful for the people’s “continuing vote of confidence” in the President, who remains “the most approved and most trusted top national official today with 88 percent approval and 87 percent trust, respectively.”

“The President views these latest survey results with all humility; however, he is not leading the country for the sake of high or good ratings. The Chief Executive is simply fulfilling his campaign promises with the best interest of Filipinos in mind,” Roque said.

These two conflicting statements are somewhat reflective of the chaotic state of affairs among the President’s coterie of friends and advisers, amidst a pervasive smell of fear induced by a singularly arbitrary president. The cabinet members and his close confidantes simply are incapable of reining in the President.

In the absence of sensible advice from the timid sycophants in Malacañang, we, the ordinary people must demonstrate to DU30 that he can’t just not care about surveys and ratings. These are indicators, albeit snapshots of the moment, of the perceptions not only of his loyalists but that of his greater constituency, the Filipino people. More importantly if only for the sake of the people who have been supportive of his agenda, putting their faith in him and now maybe quite reluctantly, he needs to internalize what’s at stake here. Marami tayong nakataya dito!

Nope! DU30 will not be allowed to cop out and leave things hanging. For one the Centrist Democratic Party (CDP), small that we are, became part of the 16 million that gave the president his mandate because of one paramount shared advocacy, federalism — a systemic reformatting of the political structures overarching most of the problems and perversions of our government and society. We reluctantly accepted a traditional politician possessing the political will to transform our cherished but dysfunctional democratic institutions; and even destroy the vestiges of his own kind. This is a paradox, a traditional politician dismantling traditional politics using traditional means. Parliamentary federalism through constitutional revisions was a battlecry we responded to, from the presidential candidate from the very start. We will hold the Deegong to this one single promise.

Its rabid opponents have always used as an excuse that this concept is alien to our culture. Accordingly, majority of Filipinos don’t understand federalism and the constitutional revisions it entails. But this was also true then for the 1987 Cory Constitution, 1971 Marcos Constitution and even the original 1935 Constitution. What we need to understand about the Filipino is that for 500 years of colonialism, they trust their patrons and put their faith in their leaders to do the right thing for them. They will take federalism and Charter change on faith. And you can’t sell them short. They are a magnificently discerning race.

No president ever ran on such drastic promises — not Cory, not FVR, not ERAP, not Gloria, and especially not PNoy. Only this foul-mouthed, irreverent DU30 had the effrontery and courage to push for a radical and systemic agenda. That’s why he needs to be mindful of his survey ratings. He needs the continued support of the citizenry.

We federalists know our priorities. We will try not to hold the Deegong to his populist campaign promises. We will not be drawn into discussions on the broken ones: the continued proliferation of endo; the non-distribution of the coco levy funds to the farmers; and even the rising prices of commodities and the stagnating wages. Furthermore, we will evade arguments of our peso being Asia’s worst performer, the widening trade deficits and the stock market in bear territory and the negative impact of the TRAIN law.

We will give the President the benefit of the doubt as these are problems, urgent no doubt, but symptoms of the presidential-unitary system, which have been our bane for almost a century. The President has four more years up to 2022, his mandate, to look into these — provided, and only provided, that he uses once more his formidable political will to push through the revisions of the anomalous 1987 Constitution.

But we will continue to give him critical collaboration on the war on dangerous drugs that badly needs closure. This can’t just be passed on to the next administration. The president has to formulate clear plans to rehabilitate the infected ones and bring them back productively to society.

After almost three decades in public service, the man is almost burnt out, running on “empty” He wants out. But not yet. And many will agree with our Centrist position: push for the systemic changes and write a federal-parliamentary constitution and put it in place. Then by 2022, leave the presidency and go back to Davao. This is your legacy.