The Huge Flag
I THOUGHT we were to witness a historic event when we were invited to the unfurling of the largest flag of the Philippines at the Sarangani Provincial Capitol Complex this morning. To my dismay, what we witnessed instead was a large-scale disrespect to the nation’s emblem. Or so I thought. Just yesterday, the students and teachers of our school were advised to proceed to the capitol grounds for the unfurling of the largest Philippine flag. So we all went there this morning.
Lying on the ground was a huge lump of wet cloth spanning the length of the lawn in front of the capitol building. (That is roughly 200 meters long, I estimate.) The colors of the cloth were familiar so I recognized right away that it was the flag that was to be unfurled. White, golden yellow, red, blue, brown, and gray. Brown and gray? Does the Philippine flag have brown and gray in it? Something was very wrong about it. (Thanks to Joanna for this photo)
I grew up with a sense of respect to the flag. During my grade school days, when we were tasked to hoist the national color, we would always see to it that we handle it with care and that it would always be flown with the blue color on top, not red. During flag retreats, we would fold it without allowing it to touch the ground. I also learned that we should not raise the flag anymore when its colors have faded or when it already looks weathered. (The Flag Law)
I looked at the large piece of cloth on the ground again. It looked like a huge mess to me. So I decided, it wasn’t the Philippine flag at all but rather, just a huge cloth that looked like the Philippine flag.
Students, government employees, and men in uniform drag the edges of the flag
Why would you create such a huge flag if you don’t know how to treat it well? If you really value the national flag, why would you allow it to just lie on the ground overnight and be drenched by the rain? (It is just made of cloth, for God’s sake! Sun and rain can make it vulnerable.) And if it is sacred to you, why would you allow it to be trampled upon? On second thought, doesn’t that huge flag depict our country today, disrespected and broken apart?
Gov. Migs Dominguez and representatives from various sectors mend the flag as it needed stiching from previous unfurling.
The Woman Behind the Huge Flag
February 26th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
hugaw jud xa sir, super..
tpos s brochure p jud n ghatag nla, bliktad ang phil.flag, nsa taas po ang red.
gyera n b?
haha.
haiz.
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February 26th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
ahh ito pala yung sinabi mong malaking flag!
I remember meeting someone yung holder ng 7 guinness records, including yung mga largest flags sa Israel, etc… na nakasabay ko sa plane pauwi ng gensan
Leonard Pe s last blog post..Chasing Light : The Art and Adventure of Landscape Photography
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ayel Reply:
February 27th, 2009 at 3:51 am
@Leonard Pe, siya yun. Yung Israel na flag na pinagawa rin niya ang record holder.
I wrote a different post about it:
http://ariellalisan.org/2009/02/26/the-woman-behind-the-flag/
ayel s last blog post..The Woman Behind the Flag
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February 27th, 2009 at 8:45 am
The national flag deserves better than that kind of treatment, wet, faded and unfurled on the ground… and it was torn? Ugh!
sheng s last blog post..Movies… and a Lot More Movies
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February 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
@sheng, yeah. That’s why it neEded stitching. An0ng tela ba ang hinde mapupunit sa ganung treatment?
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March 23rd, 2009 at 8:05 am
this is perhaps the reason why this unfurling of Philippines’ largest flag was not allowed in UP (idunno which campus), if what i heard was right.. indeed, it was really a disgrace for the greatest symbol of our freedom, sovereignty, and nationality.. it’s sad to learn that many people, transgressing ages (young and old), do not know about the simple Flag Law: our flag should not, by all means, touch the ground.
wiLfRed s last blog post..tHe tHiNkiNg uRcHiN suPpoRts Earth Hour 2009
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ayel Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 am
Thanks for the comment, Wilfred. I think so. She announced it that UP and the management of Luneta Park refused the unfurling of the said flag in the sites I mentioned above. I did not wonder why, when I saw the cloth on the ground, drenched by rain.
Thanks, again. See you around!
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March 23rd, 2009 at 8:56 am
by the way, saw many people stepping over the flag.. too bad it includes a great number of your students.. *winks*
wiLfReD s last blog post..tHe tHiNkiNg uRcHiN suPpoRts Earth Hour 2009
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ayel Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Actually, I told my third year students to not get involved in it. But it was difficult to get the all the kids out of it.
Later on, to resolve it, I just told myself that what was being laid out in front of us was not the Philippine flag. It was just a huge piece of cloth. So it was alright to step on it. With that proposition, they technically did not step on the Philippine flag.
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ayel Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
It was a lousy proposition, though.
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wiLfReD Reply:
March 25th, 2009 at 1:58 am
i couldn’t agree more..indeed, it was a lousy proposition sir. well, you can never deny that the huge piece of clothe, drenched by the rain, has the sun and the three stars around it, having all the colors of the Philippine flag, is nevertheless a replica (if not an exact replica) of our very own National Flag..
anyhoo, let bygones be bygones. let’s all learn from this crap that has came upon us.
best regards..
wiLfReD s last blog post..tHe tHiNkiNg uRcHiN suPpoRts Earth Hour 2009
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