Flag of the Philippines

Flag of the Philippines

The 1998 Flag and Heraldic Code fixed the blue as "Royal Blue." The eight sun rays represent the first eight provinces to revolt in 1896; three stars stand for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Flown red-up in wartime:

1899–present

War flag (red stripe up)

The Philippine flag is the only national flag deliberately designed to be flown inverted — red stripe on top — to signify a state of war, first done in 1899 at the start of the Philippine-American War.

Marcos light-blue flag

In 1985 President Marcos changed the blue from navy to a lighter sky blue, believing the earliest republican flags had been light blue. It was reverted after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

Second Republic (Japanese-sponsored)

The Japanese-backed republic under José P. Laurel adopted a flag with a faceless sun in 1943, lasting until the republic's dissolution in 1945.

Standardized flag (faceless sun)

A 1936 order under President Quezon set exact specifications and formally removed the mythical face from the sun. This long-lived design also returned from 1986 to 1998.

Revived flag (faced sun)

Display of the flag was banned under US rule from 1907; when the ban lifted in 1919 the revived flag used a darker navy blue and still retained the mythical sun face.

Original revolutionary flag

First unfurled in 1898, the golden sun bore a human-like mythical face echoing the Spanish-colonial "Sun of May" tradition. This was the flag of the First Philippine Republic.

Tagalog Republic

A peasant rebel republic that fought on against American rule after the official end of the Philippine–American War.

Republic of Negros

A short-lived republic on the sugar island of Negros that broke from Spain and was then absorbed by the United States.

Sultanate of Maguindanao

A powerful Muslim sultanate in Mindanao that long resisted Spanish conquest of the southern Philippines.

Sultanate of Sulu

The Sulu Sultanate controlled the seas between the southern Philippines and Borneo; its 1878 lease of North Borneo is the root of the still-active Sabah dispute.

Sultanate of Maguindanao

A powerful Muslim sultanate of Mindanao that resisted Spanish conquest for centuries, flying a plain yellow banner — the royal color.

Republic of Biak-na-Bato

Emilio Aguinaldo's short-lived 1897 republic in a mountain stronghold, flying a blue-over-red flag with a white triangle and sun — a step toward Philippine independence.

Katipunan

The red banner with three white K's of the secret revolutionary society that launched the 1896 Philippine Revolution against Spain.

First Philippine Republic

Asia's first constitutional republic, declared under Emilio Aguinaldo; its sun-and-stars flag — still the modern Philippine flag — flew in war against Spain and then the United States.

Republic of Zamboanga

A short-lived republic on the Zamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao that declared independence amid the collapse of Spanish rule, before American forces incorporated it into the Philippines.