Former Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. on Tuesday detailed his proposal for the country's shift into a federalism type of government as PDP-Laban bet Rodrigo Duterte clears his way to Malacañang.

Apart from a swift action to solve peace and order issues in the country, Duterte also vowed to support that transition of the current form of government into a federal one.

In an interview with ANC, Pimentel, a founding member of PDP-Laban, noted that the shift into federalism requires the tedious process of a constitutional amendment. According to him, Duterte must allocate the first two years of his term for this cause.

“You have to amend the constitution and you cannot do that by mere passage of law, and therefore my proposal would be for Digong [Duterte], if he becomes president, would be to assign the first two years of his presidency for a constitutional convention and then the next four years for implementation,” he said.

Pimentel said the proposed federal government for the Philippines will create roughly 11 federal states, particularly four in Luzon, four in Visayas and three in Mindanao.

Luzon will be broken down into the Northern Luzon, the Central Luzon, the Southern Tagalog and the Bicol Area. While Metro Manila will make up the federal capital.

The federal states in Visayas will include the Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas and Western Visayas. While the islands of Romblon and Palawan will be declared under the Visayas territory to form another federal state.

Mindanao will be composed of federal states of the Northern Mindanao and the Southern Mindanao, as well as a separate federal state for the Moro people.

Pimentel also explained that the proposed federal government will not affect the existing congressional districts, but the Senate will be composed of senators elected from the federal states.

“For the federal representation to the national Senate, its federal state will now elect the senators. There will be assigned a specific number, for example just roughly maybe three senators for every federal state,” he told ANC.

Just like in the US, Pimentel said the primaries as employed in the selection process could also take place in a federalist Philippines.

The national budget, meanwhile, will still be determined by the national Congress.

“The national budget will be determined by the national Congress because the national Congress will be retained, every province will still send their representatives to the national Congress, plus the senators,” he said.