In a resolution approved on May 21 and sent to other provincial boards in Mindanao, the provincial board said a federal government would speed up development in the country's second biggest island.
Board members Nemesio Beltran, Jr. and Roland F. Deticio, both lawyers, cited in the resolution they sponsored that "endless political bickering in imperial Manila" was the main culprit "why our system of government is hopelessly unstable."
Beltran relayed to MindaNews via telephone that the resolution was meant "to support the Mindanawon aspiration for more fiscal autonomy and to be shielded from the dictations of Manila politics".
He said it was an expression of the strong sentiment of the board for the "adoption and establishment of a federal system of government".
In July 2005, Bukidnon hosted a political summit in Malaybalay City where political leaders across Mindanao discussed alternative options for governance.
Both lawyers said the participants of that summit "overwhelmingly" agreed to push for federalization.
"We believed then, and we still believe now, that the federalization of the Republic would bring about genuine peace and development in the Island of Mindanao," Deticio said in a press release.
The board resolution came after Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. filed joint Resolution No. 10, urging Congress to convene into a constituent assembly to revise the constitution to establish a federal system of government.
The resolution proposed eleven states: Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Minparom, Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and Bangsamoro.
Metro-Manila, based on the joint resolution, will be constituted as the Federal Administrative Region.
The board also sent copies of the resolution to Malacañang, both Houses of Congress via local legislators. (Walter I. Balane / MindaNews)