Federalism cannot stand alone

FOR decades, the Centrist Democrats in the Philippines has worked for the replacement of the Manila-centric unitary state structure of the Philippines by a federal structure. In a country as big and as diverse as the Philippines, federalism is a key element of a subsidiary state structure—in which the power of decision-making is brought as close as possible to the citizens, whose lives and well-being are affected by that decision.

Centrist Democracy is based on the core value of human dignity, and this includes as a central element the right of self-determination of each human being as a single person, and of co-determination for the social groups it belongs to; the family, the neighborhood, the villages, regions and ethnic groups.