With the nationwide Federalism roadshow starting next month, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) aims to involve the youth in its campaign for federalism.
According to DILG Assistant Secretary and Spokesperson Jonathan E. Malaya, the campaign will train its sights on the youth, particularly the millennials, given their openness to change.
“The end goal of the first wave of our campaign is to pique the interest of the younger generations and involve them in the process of nation-building,” says Malaya, who is also the head of the DILG Center for Federalism and Constitutional Reform (CFCR).
The DILG and the Consultative Commission to Review the 1987 Constitution will start its Federalism Roadshow on June 18 in Dumaguete City. They plan to hold consultations and dialogues in all regions of the country in the next few months.
According to Malaya, millennials and the younger generations are important demographic groups in the campaign because of their flexibility and openness to reforms necessary for progress. They are also the largest segment of the population.
“If we succeed in educating the youth about the benefits of federalism, we would have won half the battle already because we will have instilled in them a sense of responsibility in support of the change the administration wants to be able to move this country forward,” he says.
The DILG Spokesperson says that aside from the youth, the campaign will also reach out to the older generations for further support.
Given that federalism will be the cornerstone of the agenda of change of the Duterte administration, the DILG seeks to inform the general public about the importance of unity in a decentralized governance.
“We will also be training interested individuals about federalism in order to propagate accurate knowledge on subject,” says Malaya.
The Federalism roadshow will include consultations in the regions where the Consultative Committee (Con-com) will present its initial draft of their proposed constitutional amendments and hear the comments of the public.
“We want to start a real national conversation and not just here in NCR that’s why we’re going to the provinces,” says Malaya.
The Con-Com hopes to finish its recommendations in time for the president’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July 2018.
More details on the various aspects of Constitutional reform will be tackled after the President’s SONA when the House of Representatives and the Senate begins to deliberate on the ConCom’s proposals.
The DILG has been tasked to increase public awareness about the problems of a unitary system and how federal governance can address its shortcomings such as uneven economic development, inefficiency in governance and concentration of powers in central government.