QUEZON CITY, Philippines (Eagle News) — The Kabayan Party-List proposed in the House of Representatives the transfer of the seat of government from Manila to Davao, to ensure that progress is equally distributed in other parts of the country.
In the proposal, a National Government Center will be built in Davao City and will contain the Presidential and the Vice-Presidential Palaces, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court as well as the Constitutional bodies.
The bill was authored by Kabayan Party-list Reps. Ron Salo and Ciriaco Calalang.
According to the group’s proposal, this aims to break the issue of “Manila imperialism” and spur development in the countryside especially in Mindanao.
“Certainly, the decentralization of power will break the stranglehold of Metro Manila in the country’s political, economic, and cultural affairs,” Salo and Calalang said in the bill’s explanatory note.
“The relocation of the seat of government will also help spur development in the countryside, especially in Mindanao,” they said.