Stars over you

“Red, white and blue; stars over you; Mama said, Papa said, ‘I love you’.”

This is a nursery rhyme in the Philippines that describes the flag of the Philippines. Though, most Filipinos today would prefer the order of the rhyme to be blue, white, and lastly red, as these colours have significant meanings. Blue is for peace and unity, white is for purity and red represents patriotism and the revolution.

The National Historical Institute of the Philippines explains the importance of the colours:
“The red field symbolizes the willingness of the Filipino people to shed blood in defense of their country. The blue stands for common unity and noble aspirations of the Filipino people. The white stands for purity.”

The flag of the Philippines I’ve shown on this blog is the same one I see displayed around my university campus, University of the Philippines Los Banos – and that’s very fortunate for me, as it means that the country is experiencing a time of peace. During a time of revolution, the flag is turned around so that red is the topmost colour. I guess it’s important to know that the country I’m now living in could turn to chaos simply by turning the flag around.

The golden yellow sun is also important. Its eight rays symbolise the eight provinces or ‘barangays’ that instigated the Philippine revolution against Spanish rule. The three yellow stars are there for the three geographical regions; Luzon (the main island to the north), The Visayas (central island archipelago) and Mindanao (the island with the level 5 ‘Do not travel’ warning from DFAT).

I’m living in the Philippines at a very interesting time in history. The celebrated boxer, Manny Pacquiao, is selling everything from shampoo and toothpaste to the current Government. There’s the horrific Maguindanao massacre, where so much blood was shed that it could easily have warranted turning the flag up-side-down if it had been for a more noble cause. Plus, I can’t neglect to mention the upcoming Presidential election, scheduled for May 2010. Let’s just hope that flag stays the right way around.