Basco, Batanes—With the hope of transitioning the form of government into federalism, it is important to capacitate and supply the right knowledge and information to the people. Batanes is a lone congressional district and one of the five provinces situated in the northernmost part of Cagayan Valley Region composing of three islands namely: Batan, Itbayat and Sabtang. Hence, the region deems it necessary to conduct awareness campaign on federalism specially in far flung LGUs.

Spearheaded by the Department of the Interior and Local Government thru the Provincial Office of Batanes, an information and advocacy campaign had been conducted to discuss the general information on Federalism last July 4, 2018 at Basco State College, Basco, Batanes. This endeavor was attended by a total of one hundred ten (110) participants from the Local Government Units, Barangay Officials, Academe, Sangguniang Kabataan and Students.

Provincial Director of DILG Batanes Ma. Loida Urmatam, graced the activity. She also acknowledged the participants and thanked them for their attendance. She said that their presence shows their willingness to learn and be informed about Federalism.

LGOO V Arianne Bennevic B. Batugal presented the general information about Federalism. Currently, all the powers of the government are being concentrated in the Imperial Manila even the economic development of the country. As an effect, there is a lopsided economy and existence of two faces of society. She mentioned that in order for every region to have an equal distribution of taxes and development there is a need to shift into Federalism. In her lecture, she emphasized that with federalism there will be a balance of powers between the national and local government and fair development among regions.

Meanwhile, Regional Project Officer Romeo P. Manongas Jr. discussed the draft amendments in the constitution as proposed by the Constitutional Committee. He also encouraged them to give comments regarding the proposed amendments. He provided the email of ConCom Former Senator Aquilino Pimentel, member of the Constitutional Committee, for any queries and other suggestions and recommendations of the participants regarding the proposal.

After the presentation of the speakers, an open forum was conducted in which the participants have vocally raised their issues and concerns. Among all the questions, their similar concern is on the effect of Federalism to Batanes being an IRA dependent province.

In order to get the ideas and insights of Ivatans about federalism, a mock survey was conducted at the end of the activity. The result was as follows: