Keywords: charter change; Duterte; federalism; Marcos Jr.; 1987 Constitution

Introduction

Rodrigo Duterte, a long-time mayor of Davao City in Mindanao, was not the first presidential candidate to advocate for federalism and changing the 1987 Philippine Constitution. However, he has advocated it with conviction even before formally running for president. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo included this in her 2004 election platform with the prodding of pro-federalism advocates, and during her full presidential term created a Consultative Committee to propose constitutional changes; however, Arroyo's efforts failed for a number of reasons, including her unpopularity. The report by Arroyo's Consultative Commission also did not advocate for federalism but only a shift to a parliamentary system. Earlier, various presidents after Corazon Aquino have also attempted to change specific aspects of the 1987 Constitution, including shifting to a parliamentary system and liberalizing the economy further to foreign ownership, but all these attempts failed as well. Duterte became the first Philippine president coming from Mindanao, the southern part of the Philippines, that has regularly supported federalism and where certain groups had harboured separatist ambitions. When Duterte made federalism one of the pledges of his campaign, there were renewed hopes from federalism advocates in the country that he could make this happen. Upon winning in 2016, he seemed to hit the ground running with this promise, but it took almost three years for a draft federal constitution to be finished. After the midterm elections in 2019, there was a sudden shift in his administration's approach to charter change, moving from “big bang” approach to incremental piecemeal reforms.