From 4 to 9 November 2018, a delegation of 30 deputy governors of the Philippine provinces, accompanied with professors and high ranking governmental officials, visited the Institute of the Federalism to get acquainted with the federalism generally and the Swiss federalism in particular.

President Duterte indeed wishes to federalize its country – it was a promise of its election campaign, on the one hand to end the omnipresence of Manila, and on the other hand to guarantee the peace by protecting the rights of the Muslim minority. In this context he has already created the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

To find the best possible arguments in favor of the federalism, deputy governors went to the Institute of Federalism. The latter organized a five days study tour allowing them to discover, in Bern but especially in the cantons of Fribourg and of Valais, without forgetting the city of Fribourg whose mayor offered a “Vin d’honneur”, all the practical and concrete cogs marking the functioning of a Federal state seen from cantons and municipalities.