{"id":153424,"date":"2018-02-19T01:38:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T06:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=153424"},"modified":"2018-02-19T01:38:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T06:38:53","slug":"con-com-urged-to-assure-a-strong-sturdy-federalism-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/19\/con-com-urged-to-assure-a-strong-sturdy-federalism-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Con-com urged to assure a strong, sturdy federalism model"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He urged the Con-com to devote serious thought on the \u201carchitectural design\u201d of the proposed federalism form of government, noting that the design will be to determine the structure of government of the federation. (PNA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, chair of the consultative committee (Con-com) to review the 1987 Constitution, on Monday convened the first session of the Con-com at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge you to ensure that our federal government will be a strong and sturdy one, possessed with the power to hold together the union in perpetuity and with the energy and the endurance to convert to robust reality the dreams of our people, however long it takes,\u201d Puno said.<\/p>\n

He urged the Con-com to devote serious thought on the \u201carchitectural design\u201d of the proposed federalism form of government, noting that the design will be to determine the structure of government of the federation.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevote the most serious thought on the architectural design of our Federal Constitution before we digress to its details,\u201d Puno said.<\/p>\n

Puno also explained that although there were different models of this structure available worldwide, he encouraged the Con-com not to plagiarize and instead create one that would fit the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201dWe should not plagiarize any federal model, for our model should be distinctly Filipino as it cannot be impassive to our past and indifferent to the present,\u201d Puno said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cooperative federalism\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Puno, meanwhile stressed that the proposed federalism model should be \u201ccooperative\u201d and “not competitive\u201d noting that many regions will encounter difficult problems to become viable states.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome regions will be ready to take full steps to federalism; others will be able to take only baby steps and will need a lot of handholding,\u201d Puno said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt ought to be self-evident that the regime that should govern their relationship is what is known as cooperative federalism as opposed to competitive federalism,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that cooperative federalism should be co-active and that collaborative efforts of each state is to achieve the common goal.<\/p>\n

Hot debates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Puno said that he expected debates on the review of the 1987 Constitution to be \u201chot\u201d but not reach \u201cboiling point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some of our viewpoints may differ by a mile and not just millimeters, I am confident that at the end of the day, our labor of love will bring forth a Constitution our sovereign people deserve,\u201d Puno said.<\/p>\n

Puno noted that it was none other than national hero Jose Rizal who first floated the “federalist idea\u201d as best suited for the Philippines but noted that his dream did not make progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cRizal\u2019s federalism dream never went further than a fetus\u2026I like to believe that after more than a century of incubation, the time of federalism idea has now come to the Philippines,\u201d Puno said.<\/p>\n

Listen to the people<\/strong><\/p>\n

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, for his part, asked the committee to \u201clisten to the Filipino people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Constitution is not going to be for us but for the brighter future of the next generation of citizens in this country. Let us make this Constitution the soul of the Filipino people,\u201d Medialdea said.<\/p>\n

Committee member and former Senate President Aquilino \u201cNene\u201d Pimentel Jr. urged the Con-com to consult with ordinary Filipinos as well as members of the opposition to get their views on charter change.<\/p>\n

Pimentel also urged the Con-com to invite representatives from the women\u2019s sector and indigenous peoples to join the panel.<\/p>\n

The Con-com is expected to submit its final draft to President Rodrigo R. Duterte on July 19, ahead of his annual state of the nation address (SONA) on July 23.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier signed Executive Order No. 10 creating a consultative committee tasked to review the 1987 Constitution in line with his proposed shift to a federal form of government, which is among the top priorities of the Duterte administration.<\/p>\n

The committee will \u201cstudy, conduct consultations, and review the provisions of the 1987 Constitution including but not limited to the provisions on the structure and powers of the government, local governance, and economic policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Feb. 9, the 25-member Con-com, 19 of which were appointed by Duterte, held its closed-door preparatory meeting also at the PICC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, chair of the consultative committee (Con-com) to review the 1987 Constitution, on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":153425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[44775,24974,44611],"class_list":["post-153424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-consultative-committee","tag-philippine-international-convention-center","tag-reynato-puno","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153424","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=153424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}