News Release
Regional Conciliation and Mediation Board-CAR
14 March 2018

Three female personnel of the Regional Conciliation and Mediation Board-Cordillera Administrative Region attended a forum on Federalism: Its Impact and Prospects on the lives of Women and Children at the Sarmiento Hall of the University of the Philippines-Baguio on March 6, 2018.

The symposium gave the audience a background on federalism, its causes and effects, features and how it came to be. Professor Arellano Colongon of UP-Baguio Social Sciences Department gave a brief disparity between federal and unitary and federalism and democracy. He claimed that federal states are more democratic than unitary states and that there is no proof that democracy is dependent on federalism. He further reasoned that federalism is not connected to the level of political interest or participation and democracy is not a result of federalism. These announcements were supported by studies conducted by various political scientists.

Ms. Arlene Brosas, Gabriela Women’s Partylist Representative, thoroughly discussed the impact of federalism based on the various versions of the bill currently enacted in the lower house. She detailed how the proposed provisions affect the lives of the masses.

The timely forum was sponsored by All UP Academic Employees Union and the Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center, Inc., (CWEARC, Inc.), a grassroots-based non-profit, non-government organization working for the empowerment of indigenous women of the Cordillera through capacity building, networking, advocacy, and direct social and economic services.

END/Lyla Jane B. Tacio