The forum was spearheaded by Mr. Candido ‘Jun’ Aparece, CDPI Political Action Officer together with the officers of Centrist Democratic Party (CDP) Tagum City Chapter led by the local party Chairperson Mr. Perfecto ‘Jun’ Cagaanan Jr. The half-day forum highlighted the importance of setting up the four pre-conditions essential to forming the future Federal Republic of the Philippines.

“Federalism will only defeat its purpose if we don’t get rid of the traditional practices in our politics,” Mr. Candido ‘Jun’ Aparece Jr., Political Action Officer of Centrist Democracy Political Institute (CDPI) cited. “We must first ensure that our political parties are reformed and dynasties are abolished before we re-write our Constitution,” he added.

The participants were able to raise a wide-range of issues during the town hall concerning the future of incumbent local government unit (LGU) officials in the transition phase, continuity of programs and priorities, fiscal policies on revenue generation and sharing scheme between the federal and regional governments in lieu of Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) and the status of existing public debts.

On the second part, CDP Tagum City Chairperson Mr. Perfecto ‘Jun’ Cagaanan Jr. discussed the significance of having a genuine political party in the country to provide a well-working machine in the multi-step process and in sustaining the advocacy for socio-political transformation.

He said, “CDP is always at the forefront of the campaign for political reform. In order for us to put an end to patronage system which breeds corruption, the party collects dues from its own members.”

He also told the participants that, “the reason why politicians leave their parties respectively to join whoever is in Malacañan is because their parties don’t have any ideology. It will be a political suicide for any of them not to jump ship and join the administration, which is not the case for CDP members. It’s actually the system that dictates our elected leaders to do so.”

Cagaanan further articulated the core principles of CDP that each member must abide by to keep the so-called political “butterflies” at bay. As leader of the newly created chapter and a founding member of CDP, he assured any aspiring member in Tagum City that everyone shall go through the process of basic orientation under his watch pursuant to the Constitution and By-laws of the party prior to becoming a member. Through this method, according to him, it will prevent traditional politicians from dominating the party for any political leverage.

The teach-in session was part of the Centrist Democracy Lecture Series (CDLS). Mr. Aterio Pilonggo, Deputy Chairperson of CDP Tagum City formally welcomed the guests at the opening preliminaries of the symposium. The two previous lecture sessions were also held last summer of this year, the first was in 23 April 2016 at the City Hall of Tagum and the second was in 1 May 2016 at Big 8 Hotel.