Part 4
FUNDAMENTAL attributes of a state are people, territory, government and sovereignty or independence. When such established country-state, consensually joins other independent states, to form a union, a confederation of various republics, similar the United States of America (states with respective constitutions and celebrating their own independence days e.g. North Carolina – April 12, 1776; Hawaii – Nov. 28, 1843; Texas March 2, 1836 etc.) that is federalism, e.g. 50 states, 50 republics,
However, when a single state, one republic, with an established history and constitution, is driven to internally federalize, it is in effect, the reverse of federalism. What more for a small country. This will be a perilous slide, an enticement weakening the sinews of nationalist unity towards territorial diminution, perhaps eventual balkanization. More so, for the Philippines, distinguished by island ethnicities, language, and regional loyalties. We were for many centuries 1521-1900s confronted and provoked over the question of national identity. We wrestled with our own skins manipulated by late foreign and even current neo-colonials for advantage in a “divide and conquer”, pitting “natives” against another to subjugate other tribes and islands. From 18th century ‘Old Kingdom Colonialism’ to ‘19th Century European Centralism’, both concepts, catalogued an apology for Western empire building and imperialism.
Former colonials now advocate and conveniently push for “multi-culturalism and self-determination” as modern-day movements and solutions for former and troubled territories. Experimentation with federalism under such neo-colonial thinking, will deconstruct our republic. Unravel surviving national identity, weaken the solidarity in the archipelago as established by our “founding fathers”. We will again be reverting to island/regional tribes to identify states? Most vulnerable to geo-political influences and territorial incursions for selfish alien interests?
