THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINE FLAG BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

The Philippine Flag, history and evolution.

The design of the Filipino flag is the result of modifications made on the early flags  of the Filipino revolutionists, particularly the group called the Katipunan, which  was led by Andres Bonifacio. 

In 1892, Katipunan adopted a war standard. It consisted of a red rectangular  piece of cloth with three white K's arranged in a row in the middle. The three K's  stood for Kagalagalangan Kataastaasan Katipunan (Most venerable, supreme  organization). In some flags the three letters were arranged in such a way as to  form the three angles of an equilateral triangle. 

Although some Katipunan leaders made their own flags, these flags bore the red field and white K's. Several months before the outbreak of the revolution against Spain in 1896, Bonifacio fashioned another flag. 

This time, the flag consisted of a red rectangular  field with a white sun in the middle. Below the sun were the three K's. 

General E. Aguinaldo and other revolutionary leaders of Cavite Province modified this  Katipunan flag in 1896. They came out with a rectangular banner with the white sun  and eight rays; in the middle of the sun was a white K in the ancient Tagalog script. 

Then on March 17, 1897, at the Naic Assembly, the revolutionary leaders again  modified the flag. At the center of the red rectangular cloth they placed a mythological sun with eyes, nose, and mouth. The sun radiated eight groups of rays.

The sun symbolizes liberty; its eight rays, the first eight provinces that rose up in arms against Spain: Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Erija, Tarlac, Laguna,  Betangas, and Cavite. 

When General Aguinaldo was in exile in Hong Kong, he thought of making  changes in the flag. At his request, Mrs. Marcela Agoncillo, assisted by her eldest  daughter, Lorenzana, and Miss Delfina Herbosa, Rizal's niece, sewed the banner  that later became the Filipino national flag. 

General Aguinaldo brought this flag with him when he returned to the Philippines on May 19, 1898. He first unfurled it in public on May 28, 1898, to commemorate the victory of the Filipinos against the Spaniards in the Battle of Alapan. The official hoisting of this flag, however, was made on June 12, 1898, in Kawit, Cavite.