THE Consultative Committee (ConCom) tasked by President Rodrigo Duterte to study the 1987 Constitution said on Friday that the push for the Negrosanon Federated Region (NFR) goes along with the proposed federalization.
President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to unveil the draft during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July.
ConCom member Arthur Aguilar said the draft they submitted to the President will be part of his Sona.
It will be unveiled on the Sona, then the President will submit to the Congress for consideration of Constituent Assembly.
Aguilar said they expect that a plebiscite for federalization will be synchronized to the next year's midterm elections.
Concom members -- Aguilar, Prof. Edmund Tayao, Dean Julio Teehankee, Atty. Susan Ubalde-Ordinario and Prof. Eddie Alih -- revealed this during the “Symposium on Federalization for Negrosanon Federated Region” at Sugarland Hotel in Bacolod City Friday.
Aguilar, the lone Negrense member, said the President told the ConCom members, in a closed-door meeting, to take care of federalization, study the Constitution and come out with the recommendations.
Aguilar though admitted that he has not brought up the proposed NFR to Duterte.
"What we do know is during our closed-door meeting with him, in fairness to him, he said you take care of that and study it and come out with your recommendations," Aguilar said.
He also revealed that Duterte had three directions and that he wants a nationally-elected president.
"He was probably assuming that in a shift to Parliamentary we will have a Prime Minister. Therefore, he was thinking of a French model or South Korean or Taiwan type where we have nationally elected president and the parliament where a cabinet is inside the parliament," Aguilar pointed out.
“No federal state or region must ever have the Armed Forces and he wants to liberalize the economy. Make sure you properly define what constitutes national patrimony and you have some oversight and regulations and he wants to resolve the Mindanao conflict through the Federalized Republic with the revision of the Constitution,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar said there is no plan ask the President to reverse the Executive Order (EO) abolishing Negros Island Region.
“He need not make any more decision on his EO, but the fact is we have not tackled it with him yet. Many of us here know that 20 or 30 years ago many of us have been advocating one-island region,” he said.
Aguilar also said that Negros is a “country by our own.”
"We are one of the few islands that could be independent of the other. Negros Island has all the statistics and I believe that with the proper presentation in a proper forum to the President, knowing the president, I think he will see the light. The problem was when he was at the point of decision, the people who were facing him and I think he was given the information which was not exactly accurate. That's why I'm asking all of you if you got a public statement from anybody saying that it's too expensive to put the two provinces together please challenge them and show figures to us because we see that the island can stand alone," Aguilar said.