Gov't eyes P90m budget for information dissemination on federalism
The Duterte administration is eyeing a P90 million budget to inform the public about federalism, Malacanang said on Thursday.
In a press briefing in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said there is an intergovernmental task force created for the information campaign.
"So, the initial amount that has been identified for dissemination is P90 million, but P10 million will go to PCOO (Presidential Communications Operations Office) for production of materials," he said.
Of the P90 million, he said about P50 million would come from the savings of the Consultative Commission, a 22-man body that drafted the proposed new constitution, which will pave the way for a federal form of government from unitary.
Since ConCom has completed its task, it would end its life by August.
"We will bring down our dissemination level to the level of the barangay; we will focus on training the trainers and we will utilize mass media as well for this dissemination," Roque said.
The government embarked on this massive information campaign on federalism after a survey showed there was low awareness among the Filipinos.
"We repeat that the survey so far confirmed that there’s a need for dissemination in so far as it shows that the overwhelming majority still do not know anything about federalism. So we have accepted the challenge, and we will embark on this massive dissemination drive," Roque said. Celerina Monte/DMS