(Eagle News) — Many Filipinos are not in favor of Charter Change and federalism, a recent Pulse Asia survey said.
According to Pulse Asia, 64% of Filipinos were opposed to amending the 1987 Constitution, a figure that was an increase from the 44% who opposed Charter change in another Pulse Asia survey in 2016.
Of the figure, Pulse Asia said 32% were open to Charter change sometime in the future but not at present, while 32% were “completely opposed to any amendments, whether now or at any other time.”
Pulse Asia said 49% of Filipinos were aware of proposals to amend the Constitution, an increase from the 41% recorded in July 2016.
Sixty-six percent of Filipinos, Pulse Asia said, were opposed to replacing the present unitary system of government with a federal one.
Of the 66%, Pulse Asia said 36% of Filipinos were “against changing the system of government regardless of the timing of such change,” while 30% were “opposed to changing it now but may be open to it sometime in the future.”
“Review interpretation”
But Senate President Koko Pimentel said the interpretation of the survey should be “review(ed).”
According to Pimentel, the results for “Do not amend now but OK to amend later” can be “counted as in favor of amending the Constitution.”
“Magiging more than 50% or even 60% ang in favor of amending the Constitution if we do that,” he said.
He acknowledged, however, that “people still need to know more about federalism as the word has remained a new and still unfamiliar concept to them.”
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, for his part, said the “government must step up its propaganda on the benefits of shifting to a federal system,” in particular.
“As a federalist myself being from Mindanao, I find these survey numbers an eye opener to tweak the information campaign or at the very least propose piece meal amendments to the Charter that will give greater autonomy both financially and politically to local government units,” Zubiri said.
“That would be more palatable to my colleagues and that would be more effective in amending the constitution rather than not improving our outdated charter,” he added.
Senator JV Ejercito said the results of the survey only show that “we cannot rush or railroad something that would change the fundamental law of the land and system of government.”
“We need to carefully study and make sure we do it right because this will be the fundamental law that will set the direction in the next 10, 30 or even 50 years,” he said.
The survey made use of face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults.
Pulse Asia said the survey has a ± 3% error margin at the 95% confidence level.
“Subnational estimates for each of the geographic areas covered in the survey (i.e., Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) have a ± 6% error margin, also at 95% confidence level,” Pulse Asia said. With reports from Meanne Corvera