NAGA CITY---Reacting to President Macapagal-Arroyo’s call for a shift to “federalism as a way to ensure long-lasting peace in Mindanao”, Sen. Mar Roxas disclosed Friday that he did not sign a resolution passed around the Senate calling for constituent assembly for that matter.

       “Unang-una, lumalabas na gustong gamitin ito ng Malacañang para sa Cha-cha. (Firstly, it shows that Malacañang wanted to use it for Cha-cha.),” Roxas, who graced the 22nd anniversary of the urban poor federation here, told local newsmen.

       He went on to say that the subject on federalism which requires constitutional amendments must be studied and discussed thoroughly before any call for the constituent assembly in the Congress.

       Laying down his arguments against federalism, Roxas wondered what concept of states to federate the Philippine is to apply, saying it is very vague that it could be the whole Mindanao, the whole of Luzon and the whole of Visayas to comprise the states in Philippine federal form of government.

       He added that the concept of state could also be represented by the existing regions that would make Bicol one state, the Visayan regions another set of states that he said brought to the fore the vagueness of the President’s concept of federalism.

       But Roxas said there are also good things about federalism if the details of the concept were laid down which he said would include the judicial structure and the relations of the federal government to the states, the control over resources, the fiscal issues and many more.

       He said that the call for federalism came at the hilt of the Arroyo administration’s dubious effort at keeping secret the Memorandum of Agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Arroyo government that he said was a “total sell out of the Philippine territory” to a renegade group.

       Roxas said that the true intentions of the MOA that virtually cedes a Philippine territory to the MILF have brought more problems that threaten the stability and peace of the nation rather than providing solution to the secessionist movement in Mindanao.