An intergovernmental task force, formed by President Rodrigo Duterte, has been allotted a budget of P90 million to handle a massive information campaign on the consultative committee’s proposed draft of the federal constitution, Malacañang said Thursday.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque confirmed the creation of the intergovernmental group, which was formed two days ago.
“We have initially identified P40 million, but we can only use P30 million because the P10 million will go to Presidential Communications Operations Office,” Roque told reporters in a press briefing in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay.
The 22-man consultative commission, led by former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, has set aside a budget of P50 million.
“Apparently, the consultative commission has savings of about P50 million, but they are not sure how they can actually spend it because the operations of the consultative commission will cease this August,” he said, adding that the Commission hopes to use the remaining funds for information dissemination.
The PCCO’s budget would go to production of materials to help with the information drive, Roque said.
“We have initially agreed on a strategy and we will bring down our dissemination level to the level of the barangay,” said Roque, who said they would use social media and concentrate on training the trainers to increase people’s understanding of the draft constitution.
The need for a nationwide information campaign became apparent after a Pulse Asia survey showed that almost seven of 10 Filipinos had at best a low level of knowledge about the proposed federal system of government.
“The survey so far confirmed that there’s a need for dissemination as it shows that the overwhelming majority still do not know anything about federalism. So, we have accepted the challenge, and we will embark on this massive dissemination drive,” Roque said.
The Palace has since then vowed to exert more effort to inform and educate the public on the merits of federalism as the success of the proposed changes in the Charter lies in the hands of the people.
Duterte had earlier announced that he would step down from his post once the proposed federal charter is ratified by the public next year. He also said the present unitary system of government has failed Filipinos by keeping resources and power centralized.
The President has been promoting the shift to a federal form of government to address the country’s economic issues, power unevenness, and armed conflicts in Mindanao.