No ‘love’ in Preamble of proposed federal charter

A House subcommittee tasked to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution has suggested to delete the word "love" from the Preamble.

In the present Constitution, the Preamble reads:

"We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society and establish 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."

A copy of proposed amendments said "love" should be removed from the Preamble because it has "no place in the Constitution."

Subcommittee 3, led by Leyte Representative Vicente "Ching" Veloso, of the House committee on constitutional amendments, made the proposal.

The subcommittee is assigned to review the Preamble and Articles Articles I, II, XVI and XVIII of the current 1987 Constitution.

The subcommittee also proposed to include the phrase "Federal Republic of the Philippines" in the Preamble, to emphasize the intent of the Filipino people to establish and change the system of government into a federal form.

The phrase "competent and reliable and federal form of government" was also added. The subcommittee said this guarantees that the federal government will address the basic needs of the Filipino people.

The Duterte administration has been pushing for a shift to a federal form of government as a means to address issues particularly in strife-torn Mindanao. —ALG/JST, GMA News