Mocha aims to use social media to explain federalism to Filipinos

Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson said Thursday she plans to use social media to explain to the public the merits of federalism being pushed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Isi-simplify natin ang pagpapaliwanag sa masa sa pamamagitan ng social media,” Uson told reporters.

Malacañang has said that the Consultative Committee (Con-com), the body that reviewed the 1987 Constitution, was planning to tap Uson in an information drive about federalism, and that the campaign will have a budget of P90 million.

The Palace official said she will have a meeting with Con-com spokesperson Ding Generoso on Friday to know her specific roles pertaining to the campaign.

Generoso earlier said Uson would help increase awareness" about the federal form of government if she can write about it in her newspaper column and on her popular blog, which has over five million followers on Facebook.

Uson, however, is facing a complaint from youth leaders at the Office of the Ombudsman for supposedly spreading disinformation online.

Duterte has been pushing for a shift to a federal form of government as a means to address national economic and power imbalances as well as problems peculiar to his native Mindanao like underdevelopment and armed conflict.

“Ang tanong meron bang nabago sa kung anong klaseng gobyerno meron tayo ngayon? Kaya nga yun ang gusto ni Pangulo eh. Kailangan ng pagbabago,” Uson said.

“Kaya ang gawin natin, inuudyukan ko ang ordinaryong mamamayan na bakit ba itong pangulo na pinagkakatiwalaan natin na si Mayor Duterte ay naniniwala sa pederalismo kaya dapat maintindihan ng ordinaryong Pilipino ito,” she said.

“At sila na magsasabi kung makakatulong ba ito sa bansa natin at kung mayorya ng Pilipino ang nagsasabing tama si Duterte, makakatulong ang pederalismo, bakit hindi natin subukan?”

Duterte has said that he would quit his post as early as next year once the proposed federal charter is ratified by the public, insisting that the current unitary system of government has failed the people by keeping resources and power centralized.

The federalism initiative is now pending in Congress. — RSJ, GMA News