We bought a small flag of the Philippines after lunch on Thursday. We thought it would be good to have one for many reasons, but we set it up on our desk for the session about “The History of the Church in the Philippines.”
I was really surprised at the effect the flag had on the class. I thought nothing of it, and I thought Filipinos would be happy to see me embracing their country. However, one Filipino classmate said, “I don’t know why you have that flag.” Then another Filipino classmate said, “Actually one of the points on the rays is missing.”
We began to ask questions and learned why our Filipino classmates actually don’t like their flag. They told us the Spanish people designed the flag when they were ruling the country. The 8 rays on the sun represent 8 regions that fought in Luzon, in the North. Our classmates said they should have at least 15 rays because the people in the Visayas and on Mindanao here in the South also fought. They said they felt their people weren’t represented on the flag for what they did. The three stars represent the three major regions in the Philippines, so they do get one star. I thought this was all very interesting, and I was surprised to learn about the feelings of my Filipino classmates.
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