Is this an honest mistake or a subliminal message from the Office of the President based on PNoy’s warning to China regarding the disputed Spratlys? To quote: ““We may not have the capabilities now, but that might force us to increase our capabilities also,â€?
Or is this a message that the PNoy administration is dead serious against corruption that it chose to call our people to pride the Philippine flag in a symbolic gesture of war towards the “Daang matuwid”?
More than the mistake or whatever underlying metaphor there is, the relevance of our flag should go beyond symbolism. Sure, let’s place in it our car, wear it proud on our shirt, make it as our wall paper or screen saver but it doesn’t do much for a people who have forgotten that the flag should be representing a proud nation based on merits. Proud of real triumphs and everyday accomplishments where heroes are but common members of the society and doesn’t deserve recognition; proud of a President who go beyond friendship when failure is seen to be at a nation’s detriment;Â proud of every citizen based locally and abroad because each best try to live according to the ethic of reciprocity, to a predominantly Catholic nation, this is what most can refer to as the Great Commandment found in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.
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Let’s celebrate National Flag Day, with genuine awareness and prestige. Knowing that we consciously make an effort to serve our fellowmen, knowing that we are not contributors to the flash floods; knowing that the heads of the likes of “Quirino-Grandstand-epic-fail” Puno and” VIP-prisoners'” director Diokno rolled because they have shamed a country, knowing that our faith has made us a citizen of the world with real physical meaning. Engaging in, not just one’s own but in each other’s destinies towards new levels of cooperations and shared responsibility.
Otherwise the commemoration that is asked to be observed for two weeks, from May 28 to June 12, which should be more aptly called National Flag Weeks to invoke patriotism based on an emblem and nothing more is just hypocritical respect.
References:
Philippines warns of arms race in South China Sea http://globalnation.inquirer.net/2247/philippines-warns-of-arms-race-in-south-china-sea
Photo credit : Presidential website promotes Flag Day the wrong way http://www.gmanews.tv/story/221744/nation/presidential-website-promotes-flag-day-the-wrong-way
Mike is the author of “Minsan may Isang Puta”, an allegory which has been circulating since 2004 and with over 50,000 likes and shares in social media alone. It won a film grant in 2010 to be included in the multi-narrative Indie film “Ganap na Babae” (International title: Garden of Eve). The teaser, reviews and commentaries are here. The movie was honored as Cinemalaya 2010’s opening film and has won international and local recognition.
The royalties from the initial 150 copies of Mike’s first sole-authored book, The Dove Files, went to a Project Malasakit scholar who graduated Cum Laude in April 2013, the rest was also paid forward to baby Mark who underwent a liver transplant in March 2013.
Part of the royalties of the “Minsan may Isang Puta” book at Barnes and Noble Online goes to support the education of a young Yolanda survivor taking up B.S. Accounting at U.P. Tacloban.
Since traditionally the inverted ensign is recognized as a symbol of distress or surrender (the Philippines is unique in declaring that it means war — a rather clueless attempt to obfuscate what is a centuries-old global symbolism), perhaps this is a rather discouraging subliminal message.
Maybe that’s the real meaning of it, BenK. That “someone” is actually admitting to surrender or is actually in distress. If that is the case, I would rather that he transcends being the reluctant leader and own up.
I don’t believe we have anything in our pride left…the failures of the Noynoy Aquino administration have made things worse….
the aquino administration’s endless quest for inexplicably popular but ultimately meaningless symbolism continues, and they probably don’t realize how ignorant they look to those who use their heads. from where i stand, the supposed flag weeks are just a convenient vehicle (read: e-x-c-u-s-e) to string filipinos along a feel-good ride to nowhere, because let’s face it: too many pinoys are suckers for pa-patriotic fads.
as long as the crowd is kept entertained and doesn’t turn into a lynch mob, this circus of a government can maintain the status quo and not worry about performing real work that makes a real difference somewhere. how convenient, because there’s a peter pan in malacañang.
Hey Parallax is back. ‘Sup?
That’s a good point. In the past week, there have been three things that stuck out in my mind. First, the “let’s step to China” thing. Second, Peenoy’s saying the Philippines “stands ready to assist” Thailand and Cambodia solve their border dispute over the Preah Vihear temple grounds. As if Mr. no foreign policy panache & not the current head of ASEAN & from an overwhelmingly Catholic country can help sort a decades-old tiff over an ancient Buddhist holy ground. And finally, this little boo-boo on their website.
And while they spend time on this sort of stuff, what else is getting ignored? I can think of five major, major issues of that the outside observers are seriously concerned about, and it’s bad enough that nothing is being done about those things, but add to that sophomoric antics and dumb eff-ups, and well…
Maybe I’m right — maybe somebody is making a subtle distress call. After all, this is the second time someone’s let an inverted flag slip into public view.
doing better lately, thanks. 🙂
how many times have we said it?
leadership serves a mighty important function, and that’s being in a position to prioritize time allotment and resources to certain objectives that when met would make the most impactful difference to the most people.
what peter pnoy pan and his band of fire-eaters have been doing for an entire year is no more than filipinized opium.
or maybe it’s more like filipinized LSD, completely monochromatic yellow instead of psychedelic skittles.
funny because while noynoyistas are flying across the universe with the flaming rolling pins of justice, pnoy sleeps snugly in his bed sucking thumb, ready for another day of fumigating perhaps even the international community. end result: nothing achieved.
buti pa si big este little sister yumayaman using her son as a way to make her look motherly. fail.
egad i need coffee. 🙂
now that i got my caffeine, i realize that it probably is a distress call.
i know I’d make a distress call if i were taken for an endless fun run too.
though, in the absence of pnoy’s LSD, which i’ve obviously never taken, by the way, i probably won’t seek help by painting concentric circles on my chest and then yelling “up yours” for everyone to hear.