The history of the Philippine Flag dates back to the year 1896, during the Philippine Revolution against the Spaniards. Filipinos had no national flag at the time, but when they had to revolt against Spain, the revolutionary group knew they had to raise the banner that would represent the Philippines. This led to a series of events that eventually gave birth to the Philippine flag we have come to know.
The Filipinos National flag bears three colours, three stars and a sun, the meaning of which are as follows:
Red is symbolic of Filipino courage and patriotism which is second to none, and was the colour used during the war in the province of Cavite since 31st of August 1896, until the Peace of Biak -na-Bato in 1897.
Blue representing peace, freedom and justice also carries an allegorical meaning of the Filipinos willingness to sacrifice oneself for freedom so will prefer to die before submitting themselves to the invader.
At the hoist is a white triangle, symbolic of liberty, equality and fraternity and probably derived from Masonic symbolism. White also conveys the idea that, like other nations, the Filipinos know how to govern themselves, and they do not recede from observation of foreign powers.
The three stars representing the three principal islands of this Archipelago- Luzon, Mindanao and Panay (Visayas). The golden sun representing unity, freedom, peoples democracy and sovereignty. The eight rays of the sun represent the provinces of Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Morong (modern day province of Rizal) Laguna and Cavite, which were declared under Martial Law by a Decree of the Spanish government during the revolution of 1896.
The Filipino National flag is traditionally displayed with the blue on the top of the red as picture above, however they hoisted the flag upside down with the red stripe up to show when a state of war existed.
Our Kali Self Defense logo has a Tribal Filipino national flag at its heart, indicating we are all part of large Filipino Martial Arts tribe/family, based at different locations.
The Tatsulok is an equilateral triangle, representing the 3 main points of life that we need balance and path in which we need to travel along to get there, regardless of how rocky the journey may be.
- Emotional – positive state of mind
- Physical – condition of our body/vessel
- Spiritual – values of heart and soul
