Flag of the Philippines

How to read it

The 1987 constitution (Article XVI, section 1) says the flag shall be red, white and blue, with a sun and three stars, as consecrated and honored by the people and recognized by law. The Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 8491 of 12 February 1998, describes it as blue, white and red with an eight-rayed golden-yellow sun and three five-pointed stars. It sets the proportions as width 1 and length 2, with each side of the white triangle 1, so the triangle is equilateral and runs the full height of the flag. It gives the colours as cable numbers: blue 80173, white 80001, red 80108 and golden yellow 80068. The Code makes 28 May National Flag Day and the days from 28 May to 12 June, Independence Day, the Flag Days.

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Red on top means war

The flag law says the flag flies with the blue on top in time of peace and the red on top in time of war. Hung vertically, the blue is on the observer’s left in peace and the red in war. The Norwegian encyclopedia Store norske leksikon dates the first raising with red over blue to 4 February 1899, by Filipino troops in the Philippine–American War. Getting it wrong has brought apologies. In September 2010 the flag was hung red side up when President Barack Obama met President Benigno Aquino at an ASEAN gathering in New York, and the US government apologised for an “honest mistake”, Reuters reported. In February 2019 Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor apologised for two advertisements at Taoyuan airport that showed the flag upside down.

Two dates for its first raising

The sources disagree on when the flag first flew. The Norwegian encyclopedia says it was first raised on 28 May 1898, after a victory over Spanish troops at the battle of Alapan, and adopted on 12 June when independence was proclaimed; the flag law’s National Flag Day is 28 May. The Daily Tribune wrote in 2025 that it was first unfurled on 12 June 1898 at Kawit, Cavite. The flag was made in exile in Hong Kong: Marcela Mariño Agoncillo, her daughter Lorenza and Delfina Herbosa Natividad, a niece of José Rizal, sewed it by hand. The encyclopedia names Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president, as its designer, and says the flag was banned in areas under US occupation from 1907 until 30 October 1919.

What the 1898 proclamation said

The Act of Proclamation of Independence, read by Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista in June 1898, explained the flag differently from the usual reading today, the Daily Tribune notes: the triangle was the emblem of the Katipunan, the revolutionary society, the sun the hope for progress, and the red, white and blue a tribute to the United States. The Tribune adds that the National Historical Commission’s pamphlet “Our Flag” records an earlier reference to Panay for one of the stars, where Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao are named now.

Telling it from Cuba’s flag

Cuba’s flag also has a triangle at the pole with a star in it, beside horizontal stripes. Cuba’s triangle is red and holds one white star, and its stripes are blue and white, as Cubadebate describes it. The Philippine triangle is white, with a sun and three stars, beside one blue and one red stripe.