The document summarizes the key points about the preamble of the Philippine Constitution, including its meaning, objectives, and changes over time. The preamble sets out the Filipino people as the authority and aims to build a just society and establish a government that promotes common good, patrimony, and blessings of independence, democracy, and peace. It also acknowledges God and declares the people's beliefs and aspirations.
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Lesson 2
The document summarizes the key points about the preamble of the Philippine Constitution, including its meaning, objectives, and changes over time. The preamble sets out the Filipino people as the authority and aims to build a just society and establish a government that promotes common good, patrimony, and blessings of independence, democracy, and peace. It also acknowledges God and declares the people's beliefs and aspirations.
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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.