Move for federal system starts rolling in 17th congress

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MANILA, July 3 — Enthusiasm is high among the incoming congressman of the 16th congress taking the clue from the president himself.

Over the weekend, Davao City Congressman Karlo Alexei Nograles said that with President Duterte’s commitment to federalism, he would fully support the resolution filed by presumptive House Speaker and Davao del Norte Congressman Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez.he was referring to the call for the convening of a Constitutional Convention (concon) to allow a shift from the present presidential bicameral form of government to federal presidential bicameral system.

Nograles expressed he shares the position of Alvarez the groundwork for the charter change initiative should start this early because it would require a lot of studies, research and intelligent debates.

“It may sound very simple but changing a system of government is an arduous task. Going to the nitty-gritty of dividing our regions into federal states and creating new administrative positions would require long hours of serious deliberation,” Nograles said.

He said that at least through Alvarez’s resolution, contentious debates on the method by which the chacha initiative would be carried out would be already avoided.

Aside from the method, another issue that is expected to generate debates is the creation of political divisions of the proposed federal states and the method on how the administrators would get into office.

It will be also a huge debate on whether or not chacha would just cover provisions on the system of government or it would also cover other contentious provisions touching on the economy, patrimony, national security and even term limits.

“We should expect intense debates on these issues which is why I believe that this early, we should already start the ball rolling,” he pointed out.

On Friday, Alvarez filed House Concurrent Resolution number 1, calling for a constitutional convention to amend the Constitution and pave the way for a federal system of government.

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