Friday, August 22, 2008 Speak out: Improper display of flag By Amado F. Cabaero
THE blazing red field of the national flag behind President Arroyo as she delivered her Sona recently distracted again my attention from her speech.
The flag was improperly displayed: that red field should have been on the observer’s left and the blue field should have been on the observer’s right, the country being in time of peace, according to my research in the internet.
Executive Order No. 23 issued in 1936 by then Commonwealth
president Manuel L. Quezon, prescribed that, “in time of peace, the blue strip is on top of the flag, but in time of war, the banner is inverted with the red strip on top.”
EO 23 was silent on vertically hung or displayed flags.
But our Scoutmaster in High School, in demonstrating how to comply with EO 23, inverted the horizontal flag so that the red strip was on top.
To hang the flag vertically, in time of war, he simply turned the horizontal flag clockwise so that the red strip fell naturally to the observer’s right.
Thus, in time of peace, when the flag is displayed from its horizontal position with the blue strip on top, turning the flag clockwise means the blue strip will naturally fall on the observer’s right.
This should have been the position of the flag when the Sona was delivered.
My research showed that in 1950, President Elpidio Quirino issued Executive Order No. 321 that, inadvertently, I think, interpreted “inverted” in EO 23 to include vertically displayed flags, thus putting the red strip on the observer’s right, in time of peace.
EO 321 was successively amended: by EO 25 by President Ramon Magsaysay in 1954, by EO 137 by President Marcos in 1965, by President Corazon Aquino in 1969, and by RA 8491 signed by President Estrada in 1998.
But the error in the position of the red field of the vertical flag was carried over and over until now.
