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Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Undue suffering with federalism’

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Former senator Juan Ponce Enrile on Friday opposed the planned shift to federalism, saying it would cause undue suffering to the Filipinos and subject them to more and higher taxes.

He said federalism would also be an added layer to the bureaucracy, making it more difficult to do business.

“You duplicate the bureaucracy of the national government to the federal level. It will burden the people too much with taxes,” Enrile said at the sidelines of his plunder case at the Sandiganbayan.

He made his statement even as Senator Francis Escudero said he was open to the shift to a federal form of government, but he was yet to hear its benefits and advantages.

In the past six years, Escudero said, the economy had grown bigger despite its being under a presidential form of government.

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He said prices were increasing but he believed it had nothing to do with the current form of government.

Enrile made his remarks even as the consultative committee had already submitted to the President its draft federal charter, with both chambers of Congress also receiving copies.

With a federal form of government, Enrile said, the Filipino people would have to pay federal, state and local taxes.

“The proposal embodied in the proposed constitution that this group of people has submitted to the President so far calls for a very huge bureaucracy,” Enrile said.

He said he knew the concept of federalism but he doubted the way it would be carried out.

“I agree with the concept, but I have some misgivings about the capability of the country to support it financially. It will burden the people with too much taxes,” Enrile said.

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