Con-com approves revised preamble in proposed federal charter

President Rodrigo Duterte's consultative committee (Con-com) reviewing the 1987 Constitution on Wednesday approved revisions to the preamble of an envisioned federal charter.

Voting unanimously, the Con-com en banc consented to the insertion into the preamble of phrases on building a "permanent and indissoluble nation," a "united and progressive society under a federal government," "shared ideals and aspirations," as opposed to the existing preamble without the qualifier "shared."

In explaining his vote, Con-com chairman former Chief Justice Reynato Puno said: "Our preamble proposes a union that is indissolube, a federalism that is permanent, a bond that is eternal."

"This is not just a grandiose display and play of words but a pledge by all our people, a promise by all our constituent regions not to secede from the new federal republic," he said.

He said has an anti-secession phrase.

"This pledge not to secede is ultra important, for today the world is beset by the problem of secession of states, an act often written in blood and bullets," he said.

The revised preamble approved by the Con-com, as proposed by Professor Eddie Alih, reads as follows:

“We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, to build a permanent and indissoluble nation and establish a just, humane, united and progressive society under a federal government that shall embody our shared 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 of the Federal Republic of the Philippines.”

The preamble of the 1987 Constitution 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."

The work of the Con-com will be submitted to Duterte before his State of the Nation Address in July. Congress may or may not approve the committee's proposals. —ALG, GMA News