THE FILIPINO FLAG

When the Spaniards first landed on the Philippines , the Filipinos did not have what could be called a national flag. Each chieftain  had some kind of banner representative only of his own region or clan.

Mindanao for centuries used the Turkish red flag, not to signify the political adherence to Turkey, but to  represent their own religion.

The first flag that claimed sovereignty over the country was that planted by  Ferdinand Magellan. This was the Royal Standard of Spain but this flag flew almost meaningless when Magellan was killed and his men were driven away.

When the Legaspi-Urdaneta expedition landed in the Philippines and established a garrison in Cebu in 1565, the National Standard of Spain was again planted in the archipelago. The Castilian flag was even carried further north to Manila by Legaspi’s nephew in the same year. The flag that Legaspi brought was the same flag that flew over Philippine territory for centuries, symbolizing both the predominance of Christianity and the political dominion of  Spain over the Philippines.

It was during this time that the hoisting of any flag other than the Spanish flag was condemned as treason.

The Philippine national flag was born at the cry of rebellion on August 26, 1896 in Pugad-lawin. More than 1,000 Katipuneros rallied around Andres Bonifacio crying Long live the Philippines in open defiance of the authority of the Spaniards. The Katipunan’s war standard had a sun in a rectangular field and the well-known letters K.K.K. at the bottom center which stood for “Kataastaasan Kagalanggalangang Katipunan” (Most High and Most Sacred Society).  

The first phase of the revolution was characterized by the first and second stages of the evolution of the Filipino flag – the Katipunan flac raised at the Cry of Balintawak and Bonifacio’s war standard used in the  Cavite campaign against the Spaniards.

The third stage of the evolution of the flag started with the proclamation of  Independence in Kawit on June 12, 1898. Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, judge advocate general, unfurled  the tricolor flag that had been adopted by the Junta Patiotica in Hongkong as the emblem of the renewed revolutionary movement  against Spain and which Aguinaldo  brought back on May 17, 1898. This is the flag that resembles the present Philippine national flag. 

The red color, which characterizes the flags of all revolutionary  movements throughout the world, is symbolic of Filipino courage.

The  blue carried an allegorical meaning that all Filipinos will prefer to die before submitting themselves to the invaders.

The white conveys the idea that like other peoples, the Filipinos know how to govern themselves.

The mythological sun with eight rays signify the Sun of Liberty and the eight provinces first to be declared under martial law as insurrectionists by the Spanish governor-general in 1896.

The three stars represent  the three large geographical regions of the Philippines and give the emblem national character and score.

When the Americans completed their conquest of the Philippines, it is important to note that the Philippine Commission passed a law prohibiting the use of any other flag but the American flag.

The flying of the Filipino flag on many occasions seemed to awaken Filipino nationalism; thus, it became a crime for any Filipino to fly his own flag in his own country.

It took a long time for the Filipinos to obtain the right to fly their own flag and it was only in 1919 that Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison proclaimed October 30 as Flag Day and authorized the flying of the Filipino flag alongside that of the American.

On Independence Day in 1946, the American flag was finally lowered and the Filipino flag was raised to fly alone for the first time all over the land.