Flag of the Philippines

Philippines

Name	Pambansang Watawat ("National Flag")
Use	National flag and ensign
Proportion	1:2
Adopted	June 12, 1898 (original version used by the First Philippine Republic) February 12, 1998 (current version reaffirmed by Republic Act No. 8491)
Design	A horizontal bicolour of blue and red; with a white equilateral triangle based at the hoist containing three, 5-pointed gold stars at its vertices, and an 8-rayed gold sun at its center.
Designed by	Emilio Aguinaldo
Variant flag of the Philippines
Use	State and war flag
Proportion	1:2
Design	As above, with the blue and red stripes switched to indicate a state of war.
Designed by	Executive Order No. 321 of Elpidio Quirino and Executive Order No. 23 of Manuel L. Quezon in 1936

The National Flag of the Philippines (Filipino: Pambansang Watawat ng Pilipinas) is a horizontal flag bicolor with equal bands of royal blue and scarlet, and with a white, equilateral triangle at the hoist. In the center of the triangle is a golden-yellow sun with eight primary rays, each representing a Philippine province. At each vertex of the triangle is a five-pointed, golden-yellow star, each of which representing one of the country's three main island groups—Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the central star originally referred to Panay (where Iloilo is located, the first province outside Luzon to have raised this flag) which is commonly mistaken to be the whole island group of Visayas. Panay, which recent interpretations call as "as representative of the entire Visayas region".

A unique feature of this flag is its ability to indicate a state of war if it is displayed with the red side on top.

The flag's length is twice its width, giving it an aspect ratio of 1:2. The length of all the sides of the white triangle are equal to the width of the flag. Each star is oriented in such manner that one of its tips points towards the vertex at which it is located. Moreover, the gap-angle between two neighbours of the 8 ray-bundles is as large as the angle of one ray-bundle (so 22.5°), with each major ray having double the thickness of its two minor rays. The golden sun is not exactly in the center of the triangle but shifted slightly to the right. This flag is waved when having ceremonies

The shade of blue used in the flag has varied over time, beginning with the original color lazuli Rosco. The exact nature of this shade is uncertain, but a likely candidate is the blue of the Cuban flag, which a theory says influenced the flag's design. Specifications for the flag's colors with shades matching those used in the American flag were adopted by the National Historical Institute in 1955. President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the colors restored to the original light blue and red of the Cuban flag in 1985, but this was immediately rescinded after the 1986 People Power Revolution that removed him from power. For the 1998 independence centennial celebrations, the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines (RA 8491) was passed, designating royal blue as the official variant.