FEDERALISM IS GOOD BUT VERY COSTLY

By Bayawanon

Federalism is good in the sense that it foments decentralization, devolution, and autonomy in favor of the smaller government units, but the fact that it is very costly for it to operate in a third world country like the Philippines, I instead prefer the old UNITARY FORM of government to continually operate in the Philippines.

Federalism is working well in the United States of America, Canada, Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, Switzerland Malaysia, Australia and many rich countries in the world. These rich countries can afford to have federated states in their jurisdiction because they have the money to maintain the operation of their federated states, in this connection, this type of government is NOT IDEAL for third world countries since it is very costly and the passage of the same may simply bloat the bureaucracy.

The United States of America is divided into federated states, Canada is composed of several federated provinces and Australia is also composed of different federated territories because there is a necessity for them to divide their respective territories because of its vastness. These countries have also the right to divide their territories because they have enough resources to maintain their divided and federated locales. In the contrary little and third world countries may become poorer if they would divide their territories and federate the same.

WHY IS IT COSTLY?

Shifting the UNITARY FORM of government to a FEDERAL FORM would be costly on the following grounds:

1.) For one, in order for a unitary form of government to be divided and be federated, the country's constitution needs to be amended first by way of a constitutional convention or via constituent assembly by Congress (Philippine setting), and once it passes through the proper processes, it shall be approved by the people by way of a plebiscite or a referendum. Because of this the government would spend so much money, maybe by hundreds of billions for a federal state to be operative;

2.) Once the country is divided and be federated into several states, each state shall have its own government separate and distinct and independent from each other. Every federated state shall have its own executive officers like a president or a governor, it shall have its own cabinet, it shall have its own judiciary and it shall have its own congress.

The central or federal government's executive department, legislative department, and judiciary would continually function, because of this the government would be bloated and gargantuan spendings would happen to the detriment of the basic services of the same.

3) In a federal form of government, every federated state government, territory or region shall have its own TAX SYSTEM which is separate and distinct from the CENTRAL OR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, hence it would be burdensome for the business people, property owners, and the taxing public by taxing their taxable income twice. first by the federated state and second by the central/federal government.

In view of the foregoing premises, I hope that the current national leadership of the small and poor government of the Republic of the Philippines should think twice or even thrice, if not a thousand times in its decision to adopt FEDERALISM as its new form of government before the PHILIPPINES would face an uphill economic repercussion by way of too much spending, which would stem from the sprouting of federated states or regions and by way of maintaining its sustenance and continued existence.