PREAMBLE

Is not a source of power or right for any department of the government

Sets down the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution
Useful as an aid ascertaining the meaning of ambiguous provisions in
the body of the Constitution
It consists of the enumeration of the fundamental values and goals and
of the devices for achieving and protecting these goals

We, the sovereign Filipino people,

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The identification of the Filipino people as the author would imply that
the document was not just a work of the representatives but of
the people themselves who approved it by ratifying it in a
plebiscite
The 1935 Preamble used the 3rd person approach: suggesting that
some 3rd person was making the announcement that the Filipino people
were finally allowed to promulgate a constitution

imploring the aid of Almighty God,

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The constitutional commission attempted to substitute Lord of

History or God of History for Divine Providence because the
substitute connoted active involvement of God in the affairs of men
o It was rejected because it can be misunderstood as the
acceptance of the Marxist concept of history being the only God
Almighty God was chosen as being more personal than Divine
Providence and more consonant with Filipino religiosity
Aid is a more encompassing term than guidance

in order to build a just and humane society,

Adds a notion that a constitution not merely sets up a government

but is also an instrument for building the larger society of which
the government is merely a part of

and establish a government that shall embody or ideals and

aspirations,

The committee added the more dynamic word aspirations to the

passive sounding ideals

promote the common good,

Common good: project an idea of social order that enables every

citizen to attain his or her fullest development economically,
politically, culturally, and spiritually
o The phrase general welfare was rejected because it could be
interpreted as the greatest good for the greatest number even if
what the greater number wants does violence to human dignity

The phrase common good would guarantee that mob rule would
not prevail and that the majority will not persecute the minority

conserve and develop our patrimony,

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The constitutional commission tried to replace the 1935 and 1973s

conserve and develop with enhance but it yielded to the former.

and secure to ourselves and our patrimony the blessings or

independence and democracy
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The committee proposed to put participatory democracy but

participatory was deleted as being tautological
The 1935 text stated that one of the objects of promulgation was to
secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of
independence thus suggesting that independence was merely an
aspiration and not yet a possession of the Filipino people
o To remove this anachronistic suggestion, the 1973 Constitution
speaks of blessings of democracy

under the rule of law,

The committee wanted to substitute rule of regime (on the next

sentence), but it was rejected.
o Instead, the phrase rule of law was inserted

and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace,

do ordain and promulgate this constitution.
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Love: was introduced to serve as monument to the love that

prevented bloodshed in the February Revolution of 1986
Truth: protest against the deception characterizing the Marcos regime
Enumeration (truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace)
captures a stream in Catholic thought which sees peace as the fruit
of the convergence of truth, justice, freedom, and love