Comments on: No to Flag cha!

By: emmanuel l. osorio

emmanuel l. osorio — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:13:48 +0000

Pause for a while. Google a sun for all the people and add the ninth
ray to the Philippine flag. consider the point raised about the two-freedom philosphy of history as the foundation of Filipino nationhood. then see if your view will be the same.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:08:44 +0000

Not quite true. Most Filipinos in the past prior to the Spanish inquisition, except for some small places were animists/pagans.

By: Joe America

Joe America — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:00:51 +0000

BongV,

Did Moros have a sense of “ownership” as we understand it, assignable to individuals, versus the notion that the lands belong to the group as a whole. In the US, because the Indians had no sense of ownership, lands were simply claimed by the Europeans, who did.

Joe

By: dong

dong — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:23:59 +0000

So many comments, but I think the issue here is the legislative proposal by flash gordon to add another ray to the sun on the Philippine flag. What do those eight rays mean and represent? Do they represent particular groups or ethnic people? From what I know the eight rays in the flag represents the first eight provinces that revolted against Spain and not some particular groups of people. Flash gordon’s justification then to add another ray to the flag, just so to please the muslims (obviously for pogi points) is out of context. Assuming, I hope not, flash gordon’s proposal is approve, what comes next? Another ray for Mangyans, igorots,etc? To me, the proposal of flash if passed will be a grave distortion of the true meaning of the symbols in our flag.

By: supremo

supremo — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:50:52 +0000

Assuming that this bill will become a law, where will they get the money to replace all the existing Philippine flags? Oooopppps!

By: lester2k1

lester2k1 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:51:55 +0000

@sir gagelonia, thank you for the enlightened post.
Blackshama, yes, i understand your point that our muslim brethren had a totally different fight. by virtue of geography and the incomplete sense of nationhood that we had back then that the muslims were excluded from the Katipunan. this brings me now to a second question, more unrelated to the current thread but still relevant, methinks.
our national heraldry only has 8 tagalog/pampango provinces, and we are excluding the other ethnocultural groups except for an aggregated reference via the 3 stars that symbolize Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
so does this mean even in our republic’s symbols, we are exclusivist and still do not have a complete sense of nationhood?
just thinking out loud.

By: BongV

BongV — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:46:25 +0000

in that case – instead of adding one ray – make it a crescent moon.

By: BongV

BongV — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:45:41 +0000

You have to identify the segments in history during which such phenomena happened.

The landgrabbing happened after the Moros submitted to the US occupation forces – NOT the Spaniards, not the Filipinos.

That the Filipinos were able to grab lands, was after the fact of the American occupation.

Prior to that the Spaniards were paying tribute to the Sulu Sultanate – whereas the indios couldn’t own a piece of real estate without approval of the friars and civil authorities.

By: Bert

Bert — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:19:07 +0000

i don’t understand this hulabaloo about rays. as long as we all love our country, who cares about rays.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:03:08 +0000

Interesting..

I did a little search on the net about their plight. I don’t think modifying a flag could unite or provide a long lasting solution to an age-old history of oppression.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangsamoro#History

It seems they were subdued and conquered as opposed to common knowledge. I see now how they could feel betrayed. Why do they rebel from the gov’t? Who would want to be dependent to a government who allowed the moro to be displaced from their land to make room for corporations? These land grabbers and their capitalistic ambitions who have their own militia or hide behind “the army of the Philippines”

They want autonomy from oppression. And because they are ruled mainly from proxies by the administration, they are altogether wishing to be free from the Philippines.

“Without their consent, the Moros’ and the indigenous peoples’ lands were declared Philippines property. Tens of thousands of hectares were sold or leased to foreign and Filipino-owned corporations. Dominated by Filipino landlords seeking to douse mounting demands for land redistribution in the north, the Philippines government set off massive resettlement programs that encouraged and pushed millions of landless, impoverished peasants to the region where the Moros and the Indigenous peoples lived. Laws discriminated against the Moros and the Indigenous peoples: in the 1920s, for example, corporations were allowed to own up to 1024 hectares of land each, Christian settlers could claim up to 16 hectares each, but non-Christians were allotted only four.[ii]”

from:
http://links.org.au/node/631#_edn5