"Here’s where I have been over the last several weeks."
I know, I know—it’s been a month and a half since my last column, and some of you, my faithful readers, may still be coping with withdrawal symptoms.
A million apologies of course for my extended absence. But I can assure you that a lot of it was caused by a pretty good reason: my continuing involvement in the speakers bureau that’s been going around the country on behalf of federalism, a major advocacy of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, lately with assistance from the Presidential Communication Operations Office.
It’s been an exhilarating six weeks as I’ve made the rounds of the regions: getting to know my country all over again after having lived abroad for 16 years; getting to connect with the young people who’re two generations away from my own baby-boomer cohort; getting to meet the dedicated people in DILG and other agencies, and especially the rising crop of young politicians in local government, upon whose commitment and integrity will largely depend the success of federalism or, for that matter, any other reform initiative.
***
Let me see, now: where have I been allowing myself to be dragged over the last several weeks?
Cotabato, where we landed in a military base and left with pabaon of deep-water crabs and giant sugpo from the twentysomething Mayor Mastura of Sultan Kudarat city, capital of nearby Maguindanao;
Biñan, home of sumptuous buko pie, where the usual closing event, a huge indoor rally, was for the first time also simulcast online to other cities in nearby Batangas and Cavite as well as Laguna;
Los Baños, my first time to train a regional speakers bureau comprising local academics, government employees, and NGO volunteers who will later cascade the federalist idea all the way down to the barangays;
Calapan—to be specific: Socorro, two hours drive away and the “fruit basket” of Mindoro, where our host was beauty-queen Mayor Bubut Brondial who also currently leads the national league of mayors;
Davao, a frequent destination, this time to speak at the year-end conference of the national union of career executive service officers, from where I make sure to buy the mandatory durian and pomelo pasalubong;
Tacloban, a second visit, this time to help train the regional speakers bureau in that region, from where I dutifully brought home a sample of the home-made local sisi as mandated by my wifey.
***
On these latest sorties—and increasingly so since I started joining other volunteer speakers early this year—it’s become clear to me that the federalist idea is instinctively appreciated by people out in the regions, and especially their leaders, in a way that just doesn’t resonate with the Manila-based.
Once they hear my standard one-sentence definition of federalism—“creating a new, regional layer of governance in between national and local government, and transferring most national powers and resources down to the regional layer”—they’re invariably hooked by the idea.
After all, it’s the local leaders who’ve had to undergo the dispiriting experience, time and again, of investing time and money in repeated trips to Manila to plead for a new hospital, or new school, or new road, only to be repeatedly turned down. The Local Government Code of 1991 was supposed to end all of that, but today, nearly 30 years later, it’s the father of that law, “Tatay” Nene Pimentel, who’s leading the charge to federalism.
Just last year, no less than 20 percent of the national budget—some P600 billion—had to be returned to the Treasury because it hadn’t been spent by the national agencies. It’s simple common sense that those monies would have been spent faster and better by local governments who’re closer to the ground.
It’s also the idealistic ones among the local citizens who chafe against the hide-bound patronage politics plied by dynasties, who presently comprise some 85 percent of the current Lower House of Congress. Not surprisingly, the new charter proposed by these congressmen does not ban dynasties, does not ban turncoatism, and, worst of all, would even do away with term limits under the present Constitution.
Talk about taking two steps backward.
***
Even on the usually tricky issue of foreign investments, the folks out in the regions show a level of pragmatism that you rarely find among the “nationalist intellectuals” in urban ivory towers and within the hard Left.
My listeners know the cost they’ve had to pay in lost jobs, infrastructure and growth, when I point out that over the last ten years, foreign direct investment in our country was equal to only 1.9 percent of our GDP—the lowest in ASEAN, which averaged nearly 6 percent.
This is mainly—though not solely—because the Philippines is demonstrably the most protectionist country in ASEAN. Wouldn’t it be better—I ask my listeners—if the Constitution simply kept silent about restricting foreign investment, leaving it entirely up to the regions to put up any restrictions they might deem advisable through a simple process of regional legislation?
Among other things, this would let the rest of us find out, once and for all if foreign investment promotes economic growth. I don’t know about you, but I for one wouldn’t put my money on the regions who’ll be trying to keep the investors out.
Readers can write me at gbolivar1952@yahoo.com.
