ILOILO City – Today marks the start of the celebration of the National Flag Day this year until June 12, the Philippine Independence Day.
Mandated by Presidential Proclamation No. 374 dated March 6, 1965, National Flag Day commemorates the date the national emblem was first unfurled after the Philippine Revolutionary Army defeated Spanish forces in the Battle of Alapan in Imus, Cavite in 1898.
On May 23, 1994, Executive Order No. 79 extended the period of celebrating National Flag Day from May 28 to June 12.
According to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), all Filipinos are encouraged to display the Philippine flag in offices, agencies and instruments of government, business establishments, schools, and private homes throughout this period.
“This is to give respect and reverence to our symbol of national sovereignty and solidarity. The Philippine flag is the embodiment of all our country’s ideals, culture and traditions,” the DILG said.
In Iloilo City, establishments and government edifices have started displaying Philippine flags prior.
PH FLAG IN SANTA BARBARA
The town of Santa Barbara is home to one of the biggest Philippine flags in the country. It measures 30 ft. x 60 ft. while the flagpole stands at 120 ft.
On Nov. 18, 2015, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) ordered that a giant Philippine flag at the public plaza of Santa Barbara town be flown “in perpetuity.”
The Santa Barbara plaza where Philippine independence in the Visayas was proclaimed in 1898, is among the select places in the country where the national color is permanently hoisted 24/7 and illuminated during the night.
This hoisting of the Philippine flag also marked the inauguration of the Revolutionary Government of the Visayas.
Then Iloilo’s Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. said “that event in Santa Barbara symbolized our collective struggle for freedom.”
After the 1898 raising of the Philippine flag, Santa Barbara became the headquarters of the local revolutionary forces against Spain and from there General Martin Delgado launched the campaign to liberate Iloilo.
To recall, Defensor Sr., the late NCHP executive director Ludovico Badoy, then Santa Barbara’s Mayor Dennis Superficial and Army Colonel Eric Ochida, unveiled on Nov. 17, 2015 a marker at the base of the flag during the occasion of the 117th anniversary of the first raising of the Philippine flag in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The marker read: “As mandated by Republic Act 8491, the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines, the Philippine flag shall be permanently hoisted on this site 24/7 throughout the year and shall be illuminated at night.”
“May the flag, which now fly in this place in perpetuity, constantly remind us of our sublime duty to honor the sacrifices our heroes made to unite the nation, to defend the liberty of our motherland from foreign aggression, to uphold justice, equality and the rule of the law,” Badoy had said.
Badoy, 69, succumbed to severe pneumonia complicated by coronavirus disease 2019 last month.
Other few places include the Malacañang Palace, the Senate building in Manila, the House of Representatives in Quezon City, the the Rizal Monument in Luneta, the Aguinaldo Shrine in Cavite, the Barasoain Shrine in Bulacan, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and the Mausuleo de los Beteranos dela Revolucion in Manila./PN
