Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the Inter-Agency Task Force on Federalism and Constitutional Reform (IATF) and its 10 clusters have been regularly meeting in preparation for the new Congress in June of this year.
Members of the IATF include the Presidential Communications Operations Office, Department of National Defense, Civil Service Commission, Department of Justice, Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, Office of the Cabinet Secretariat, Presidential Management Staff, Development Academy of the Philippines, University of the Philippines Law Center, the Department of Finance, among others.
“The IATF expects to finish its work by June of this year and we hope to work closely with the new Members of Congress to have this approved during the second half of the President’s term,” Malaya said.
According to Malaya, there was still time “to get this off the ground” with three years remaining in Duterte’s term.
He said Misuari should “instead help the IATF advocate for federalism among our people so that more people will understand why federalism is needed.”
“Federalism, as we all know, is a complex matter. It’s a change in how we are governed. The devil is in the details. So, I think we have to give government more time to iron out the details. And that’s what we have been doing recently,” Malaya said.
