Mamasapano raises ante for federalism

President Aquino’s address to the nation last Wednesday night was pathetic. His words and the way he spoke betrayed an eagerness to wriggle out of a situation he clearly triggered but prefers to hide behind deniability. For a man who refuses to own up to his role in provoking the sordid massacre of 44 police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, if only to shirk command responsibility, he doth protest too much!

This episode has damaged the government’s social capital for brokering effective peace. It’s really too bad, because only a while back, amid Mr. Aquino’s fulsome assurances of “peace at hand,” we did sense a palpable meltdown of distrust or suspicion between and among us Mindanaons, and dawn seemed to unfold.

Then the massacre occurs and a relapse ensues, as virulent as a deadly virus, with people texting each other: “Peace without honor is worse than war!” “Peace without justice is cowardly!” “It’s a wishy-washy peace that P-Noy is installing in our region!” “Why are we being manipulated over and over again?” “We can no longer trust the

central government!”

And so the aperture for peace has narrowed again.

One can hardly fault anyone for harboring these sentiments, or take issue with wanting responsibility relocated where it should be. The Constitution affirms: “Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.”

Well, then, people say, let’s reclaim our sovereignty and assert our authority… And the best way to do it is through the federal form of government.

The snafu in Mamasapano is the result of presumptuous decision-making without consultation or a sense of accountability. We Mindanaons can no longer tolerate such cavalier treatment. The bungling must stop. It leaves us no choice now but to turn to the federal solution as the way to put the onus of keeping the peace where it belongs: the community.

A federal setup will squelch the secessionist urge. It will avert sabotage by involving everyone, on all levels.

There’s an old saying in Moroland: “If you want to talk peace, get everyone into the room; otherwise, those outside will sabotage things by lobbing a grenade to get attention and be heard.” Well, we’re certainly hearing plenty outside the peacemaking tent! And the betting is that there’ll be more.

And so the stage is set for a quiet but persistent thought that nags at thoughtful

Mindanaons: Let’s have federalism. What’s good for the Bangsamoro should also be good for everyone else, and let the process be inclusive. Federalize! Formulas for doing so already exist.

For it to work, however, the federal system must take root from the “pinatubo”

(not “pinatulo”) approach to governance and development: Grow it from below; trickle-down does not work.

And it won’t arise from the mouths of oligarchs and autocrats, they who perversely practice and propagate feudalism in our time.

To neutralize these oligarchs, strongmen and thuggish leaders, let the people be

empowered and enthroned in accordance with the policy of autonomy and the principle of subsidiarity. It is high time good government and development planning started with the community.

The people and their community must now be ushered to the seat of power—governing their community, defining its problems and priorities, charting its development, creating its own prosperity.

That’s also the best way to grow the local GBP (gross barangay product) and make it contribute to and expand the gross domestic product (GDP).

Out of the experience and confidence from managing the community (barangay), people will more surely develop the competence or capability to manage the larger units, and ultimately the federal state.

This grassroots-based approach is espoused by the Gising Barangay Movement Inc.—its contribution to our republic’s sociopolitical development. There’s no better way to fix the instability of our republic; there’s no idea better to forge solidarity among diverse sectors of Mindanao society and the rest of the country.

Federalism will anchor sovereignty and authority firmly upon the will of the people and the community, and serve to rein in the rogues that spawn violence and anarchy in our society and politics.

Good, accountable governance must be installed through affirmative action and citizen participation under a decentralized and devolved federal scheme.

Then will we have democracy with a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Manny Valdehuesa (valdehuesa@gmail.com), from Cagayan de Oro City, was deputy presidential adviser (undersecretary) for constitutional reform in 2004, vice chair of the Local Government Academy (2002-2004), director at the

Development Academy of the Philippines (1975-1987), and administrator of the 1971 Constitutional Convention (February-July 1971). Today he is president (on leave) and national convener of Gising Barangay Movement Inc. (formerly Task Force Good Governance), an advocacy for empowering the grassroots.