The Consultative Committee, which reviewed the 1987 Constitution, will reportedly deliver on July 9 to President Rodrigo Duterte the draft of the federal charter.

This fulfills the reason for President Duterte’s creation of the Consultative Committee, which is to endorse and justify the shift from a unitary to a federal system.

The Consultative Committee must disclose to the public the facts and figures as well as the opinions and sentiments it used to warrant the proposed shift.

In the latest survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS), it was documented that only 25% of Filipinos are aware of the proposed adoption of the federal system. This confirms the earlier survey of Pulse Asia that 70% of Filipinos have no knowledge or awareness of the federal form of government.

Economic data also show that only three regions – Metro Manila, Calabarzon (Region IV-A) and Region 3 – are financially capable of becoming federal states, and the rest of the regions proposed by the Consultative Committee to constitute the Federal Republic are not fiscally or budgetarily self-reliant or autonomous.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN