Flag of the Philippines

The National Flag of the Philippines (Filipino: Pambansang Watawat ng Pilipinas), commonly known as "The 3 Stars and a Sun" (Tatlong Bituin at Isang Araw), consists of a horizontal bicolor with equal bands of royal blue and scarlet red with a white equilateral triangle at the hoist. In the center of the triangle is an 8-rayed golden sun [The 8 rays represented the 8 provinces that started the 1896 Philippine Revolution against Spain, and they are Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Morong (now Rizal Province), Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Batangas and Cavite.] At the vertexes of the triangle are 3 golden stars, symbolizing the 3 island groups of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Flags of the Philippine Revolution
It has been common since the 1960s to trace the development of the Philippine flag to the various war standards of the individual leaders of the Katipunan, a pseudo-masonic revolutionary movement that opposed Spanish rule in the Philippines and led the Philippine Revolution. However, while some symbols common to the Katipunan flags would be adopted into the iconography of the Revolution, it is inconclusive whether these war standards can be considered precursors to the present Philippine flag.

The first flag of the Katipunan was a red rectangular flag with a horizontal alignment of three white Ks (an acronym for the Katipunan's full name, Kataas-taasang Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan - Supreme and Venerable Society of the Sons of the Nation). The flag's red field symbolized blood, as members of the Katipunan signed their membership papers in their own blood.

The various leaders of the Katipunan, such as Andrés Bonifacio, Mariano Llanera, and Pío del Pilar, also had individual war standards. The organization was represented in Cavite province by two factions: the Magdiwang faction and theMagdalo faction, with each adopting a flag. Both used a white sun. Instead of the letter K the flags bore the symbol for the syllable ka in Baybayin, the pre-Hispanic writing script of the Tagalogs.

The Katipunan adopted a new flag in 1897 during an assembly at Naic, Cavite. This new flag was red and depicted a white sun with a face. The sun had eight rays, representing the eight provinces that Spain had placed under martial law.