Federal Republic of the Philippines: State of Maguindanao

State of Maguindanao

Kutawato Cave, the only cave found at the heart of a Philippine city
(photo from cotabatocity.net)

Maguindanao, a prospective federal state in southern Philippines covering the rich Cotabato Valley. The name Maguindanao comes from mag-inged sa danao, "people of the floodplains," describing the natives of the area.

People The Maguindanao are bold, forceful people, as demonstrated by their feat of rebuffing colonization whilst the other Philippine kingdoms fell to the Spaniards. They continue to assert their cultural identity to this day, demanding greater freedom of self-determination: a call that federalism accommodates.

A Maguindanaoan princess

(photo by DONG PADING)

Federal Republic of the Philippines

Government

A federal Philippines means that a measure of the chief executive’s power — like the control of tax revenues, designation of official languages — is devolved to the regions and provinces to allow them the freedom to effectively administer themselves under the ultimate power of the central government. The regions and provinces are now organized into federal states, ideally created by ethnic lines and families or what are called ethnic states.

Economy

The economy of a federal Philippines is characterized by genuine fiscal decentralization and regional specialization. Fiscal decentralization is the distribution of financial functions from the national government to the regions; and specialization happens where federal states, their cities and provinces, devote their resources to separate industries.

Culture

Philippine culture is diverse, with over 80 ethnolinguistic groups native to the country. The federal Philippine nation would ideally consist of 22 ethnic states, each free in fostering its own culture and languages. In this way, the Philippines will preserve and sustain its rich cultural diversity.

History

The Philippines is a federation that hasn't yet been. For an archipelago originally home to a collage of rajahnates, sultanates and barangay chieftaincies, if this were to end up as one nation without imperialists coming to capture and carelessly consolidate the different tribes into a single colony, the Philippines would have been a federation.