{"id":143399,"date":"2018-01-03T01:06:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T06:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=143399"},"modified":"2018-01-03T01:06:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T06:06:06","slug":"alvarez-federalism-govts-top-priority-for-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/03\/alvarez-federalism-govts-top-priority-for-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvarez: Federalism gov’t’s top priority for 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"House<\/a>
FILE: House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. (Photo<\/a>: Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaker of the House of Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez said on Wednesday that prioritizing the government\u2019s shift to federalism may cancel out elections in 2019.<\/p>\n

As Alvarez cites the Duterte Administration\u2019s accomplishments in 2017, he laid out the things that the government needs to sort out as they welcome 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one is the convening of Congress into a constituent assembly (Con-Ass) and in revising the constitution \u2013 a shift from a unitary to federal form of government,\u201d he said in an interview with ANC.<\/p>\n

\u201cPara sa akin<\/em> (For me) if we can convene by January, pwede natin \u2018yan<\/em> i-<\/em>submit (we can submit it) for referendum sa<\/em> (in the) barangay elections ng<\/em> (in) May,\u201d Alvarez added.<\/p>\n

According to the House Speaker, as long as people will work hard for it, it is possible to be done in a short time.<\/p>\n

When asked about the possibility of not having elections this 2019 because of the shift, the House Speaker said that \u201canything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be practical. \u2018Pag nag-<\/em>shift ka<\/em> (If you shift) into a different form of government, unitary to federal, you need a transition government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung<\/em> senators kasi, \u2018yung termino nila, \u2018di ba hindi \u2018yan sabay-sabay na nag-e<\/em>-expire. May mag-e<\/em>-expire sa<\/em> 2019, may mag-e-<\/em>expire sa<\/em> 2022. In fairness, maganda siguro kung ipa<\/em>-expire mo lahat sa<\/em> 2022 para wala ka nang utang<\/em> (The expiration of the terms of the senators are the not the same for all. Some will expire on 2019, while some in 2022. In fairness, it is probably good to expire all on 2022 so there are no more debts),\u201d Alvarez explained.<\/p>\n

He, however, mentioned that all of this is still dependent on the \u201ctransitory provision\u201d that will be decided by the constituent assembly.<\/p>\n

On the subject of no senator showing an open support for the President\u2019s proposal to a federalism shift, though he did not choose to reveal and specify, Alvarez said that there are ways to convince the lawmakers of the upper house. He also noted that the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan\u2019s (PDP-Laban\u2019s) advocacy includes federalism that is why he sees no reason for co-party member Senate President Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel to not support the shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a question of patriotism, kung ano \u2018yung tama at ano ang kailangan sa bayan <\/em>(whatever is right and whatever the country needs),\u201d Alvarez further said in the same interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker of the House of Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez said on Wednesday that prioritizing the government\u2019s shift to federalism may cancel …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":105896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[22409,11223,14428,12230,10126],"class_list":["post-143399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-aquilino-pimentel","tag-duterte-administration","tag-federal","tag-pantaleon-alvarez","tag-pdp-laban","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}