LESSON 2

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

 Apply the concept of Preamble

 Construct the principles of preamble
 Assess the importance of the Preamble.
 PREAMBLE

 We the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid

of Almighty God, in order to build a just and
humane society and established a Government that
shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote
the common good, conserve and develop our
patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our
posterity the blessings of independence and
democracy under the rule of law and a regime of
truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do
ordain and promulgate this Constitution.
MEANING OF PREAMBLE

 The term preamble is derived from the Latin

preambulare which means “to walk before”. It is
an introduction to the main subject.
PREAMBLE NOT ESSENTIAL IN A CONSTITUTION.

 Technically speaking, the preamble forms no

integral part of our Constitution. It cannot be
invoked as source of a private right enforceable
by the courts or of any governmental power not
expressly granted or at least, clearly implied
therefrom.
OBJECT AND VALUE OF VALUE OF PREAMBLE

1. Sets down the origin and purposes of the

Constitution.
– while preamble is not necessary part of a
constitution, it is advisable to have one. In the
case of the Constitution of the Philippines, the
preamble which is couched in general terms,
provides the broad outlined of, and the spirit
behind, the constitution.
It serves two (2) very important ends:
 It tells us who are the authors of the Constitution

and for whom it has been promulgated; and

 It states the general purposes which are intended

to be achieved by the Constitution and the

government established under it, and certain
basic principles underlying the fundamental
charter.
May served as an aid in the interpretation.
– the preamble has a value for purposes of
construction or interpretation of its meaning of
constitutional provisions. By way of illustration,
the government is without power to impose taxes
for private purpose because according to
Preamble it is established for public purpose – the
promotion of the common good – and not for
private purpose.
SOURCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY.

1. The Filipino people.

– the Constitution begins and ends with the word,
“We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the
aid of Almighty God x xxx, do ordain and
promulgate this Constitution. Thus, the Filipino
people themselves are the source from which the
Constitution comes and being so, it is the
supreme law of the land.
1. A Sovereign people.
– the Constitution calls the Filipino people “sovereign”.
The first-person approach consisting of the use of
pronouns “we” and “our” has also been retained of the
impersonal third person approach. The intention is to
stress that the Filipino people; in ordaining and
promulgating the Constitution, do so on their own
authority as a sovereign people and not by virtue of
authority or permission given by a superior foreign
power.
BELIEF IN GOD STRESSED.
Our preamble is in the form of collective prayer. The
Filipinos are intensely religious people. In imploring the
aid of “Almighty God,” they declare and affirm their
belief in the existence of a Supreme Being that guides
the destinies of men and nations. They acknowledge the
“overruling power of God over the affairs of nation and
all human beings.”
The Philippines is the only predominantly Christian and
partly Muslim nation in Asia and East Pacific Region.
NATIONAL PURPOSES AND AIMS IN ADOPTING THE CONSTITUTION.

As set forth in the Preamble, they are:

1. To build a just and humane society

2. To establish a Government that shall:

 Embody our ideals and aspiration
 Promote the common good;
 Observed and develop our patrimony; and
 Secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of
independence and democracy under the rule of law and a
regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and
peace.
CHANGES IN THE PREAMBLE

1. The Preamble, consisting of 75 words, is one of

the world’s longest preambles. It has 15 words
more than that of 1973 Constitution.
2. The phrase almighty God replaced “Divine
Providence” in the 1935 and 1973 Constitutions
which was considered vague and impersonal.
The latter term was used in the 1973 Constitution
as a compromise to accommodate some atheists
in the 1973 Constitutional Convention.
3. Common good is used to refer to all the people in place
of “general welfare” which is not as inclusive as it may
be interpreted to refer only to the welfare of the greater
majority, and freedom instead of “liberty” because the
latter word does not cover freedom from want, fear, and
ignorance.
4. Other amendments are the insertion of the following
phrase and words:
a) To build a just and humane society, to stress that in
ordaining and promulgating the Constitution, the
purpose is not only to establish a government but
also such a society where inequalities or inequities
in any form do not exist.
b) The rule of law, the constitutional commission is
apparently having in mind the country’s experience
of authoritarian rule under a former regime which
had been accused, among others, of human rights
violations, electoral frauds and terrorism,
suppression of dissent, abuse of the decree-making
power, and unequal application of the law.
c. Aspiration, to stand for the unrealized dreams of the
nation as distinguished from “ideals” which refer to
accepted norms and sentiments.
d. Truth, to emphasize the constitutional policy of
transparency, accountability, and integrity in the
administration of the government, without which
there can be no good governance.
e. Love, as a directive principle of the Preamble
together with truth, justice, freedom, equality and
peace.
5. The word independence in the 1935 text of the
preamble was changed to “democracy” in the
1973 Constitution for the reason that the term
denotes the idea of colonial status, and it is long
after 1946 when the Philippines has become
legally independent from the United States.
6. The word peace and equality were inserted in
the 1973 constitution in view of the turbulence,
and the waves of protest against “basic
economic and social inequalities” then
prevailing in the country at the time of the
framing of the same.