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Saturday, June 12, 2004
First Philippine flag intact after 106 years
By Harley Palangchao
BAGUIO CITY -- As the country celebrates its 106th Independence Day Saturday, scores of people are expected to visit the Aguinaldo museum along Happy Glen Loop to view the first Philippine flag, which has remained intact since it was first unfurled in Kawit, Cavite in 1898.
Considered as one of the country's most important historical relic, the original Philippine flag is being displayed inside the museum every June 12. It was displayed for public viewing on June 12, 1998 or during the country's centennial Independence Day commemoration.
The museum houses the Philippine flag and other personal belongings of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and is being maintained by the Aguinaldo-Suntay Foundation, whose board of directors are the great grandchildren of Aguinaldo.
The first Philippine flag was personally conceived by Aguinaldo, the first president of the revolutionary government and hand-sewn at 535 Morrison Hill Road in Hong Kong by Doņa Marcela Agoncillo, her daughter Lorenza and Delfina Herbosa.
Prominent among the features of the first Philippine Flag is the "mythological sun" or the "sun with a human face" which is also a regular feature in Aguinaldo's seal and coat of arms.
The flag drew inspiration from Masonic ideals and symbolism, the Cuban flag, the American flag, and the aspirations Liberty, Justice, and Equality of the French Revolution.
Aguinaldo brought the flag to the Philippines on May 19, 1898 on board the American dispatch boat McCulloch. It was first unfurled by Aguinaldo in his headquarters in Cavite on May 28 that same year before victorious Filipino troops and more than 270 Spanish marines who surrendered to them on the battle of Alapan, Imus, Cavite.
The same flag was unfurled for the first time in public during the proclamation of Philippine Independence at the Aguinaldo mansion, now Aguinaldo Shrine, in Kawit, Cavite at around 4:20 p.m. of June 12, 1898.
Paquito Alonzo, curator of the Aguinaldo museum, said that only a few people visited the museum to view the flag, which remains unacknowledged by the National Historical Institute as a historical artifact.
(June 12, 2004 issue)
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