PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, July 22, said he will continue to push for federalism, but acknowledged that this would not be realized under his watch.
Duterte made this admission in a media interview after he delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona) before the Joint Session of Congress.
He did not mention federalism at all during his speech, which lasted for about an hour and 30 minutes.
"Federalism is good but there are certain things that you have to be very clear. One is that it devolves a lot of authority to the local government's region. It must be something like the President, not I, I suppose that it would come after me," the President said.
"It has to have a strong president to put together the country because a federal [state] is a very loose structure. One has a lot of power locally. So the President will have to have two deviser, until such time that we have perfected it, there has to be a strong president with the same powers now. But I'm out of it because I think it will pass beyond my time," he added.
The shift to a federal form of government from a unitarian system was one of Duterte's campaign promises.
Asked why he did not mention the proposed shift to a federal government, Duterte said: "It is not the proper time to be discussing it ngayon (now)."
"It's better left in conferences that are not allowed to be open to the public kasi kung one provision to one another, magulo eh. Sa isang provision lang, if we change it, there will be a lot of complaints. A lot of pros and cons. Mahilo ka. So better just talk about it among yourselves and present it to the public ano na, package na, completed," he added.
(It's better left in conferences that are not open to the public because it's difficult to discuss from one provision to another. If we change just one provision, there will be a lot of complaints, a lot of pros and cons. It will be complicated for you. So better just talk about it among yourselves and present it to the public if it's already a package and completed.)
On January 18, Duterte said he remained inclined to push for a federal government, but hinted that he might just seek to revise the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.
Article 17, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution provides that "any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by (1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members." (SunStar Philippines)