Baguio to host Philippines’ largest flag on June 12
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 09:31:00 05/31/2008
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- The country's largest flag, a replica of the banner laid out on a hillside in Nueva Vizcaya in 2006, will be unfurled here on June 12 as part of the countdown to Baguio's centennial and its celebration of Philippine Independence Day.
Nestor Quinto, press relations officer of Great Life Resource Center, the educational arm of the event organizer Good News Community Church, said the event will give Filipinos a chance to renew their pledge of loyalty to the country.
"We are unfurling this flag in Baguio because the Bible says blessings will come from the mountain. But our message is also about loyalty, that despite the problems that our country is facing, we still affirm our loyalty to the flag," Quinto told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview on Thursday.
He said the flag, which measures 100 meters by 200 meters, is recognized as the largest flag in the Philippines. The flag will be unfurled at the Athletic Bowl in Burnham Park on June 12 as part of the city's Independence Day program.
Quinto said around 600 people will help in unfurling the giant flag.
The flag's maker, Grace Galindez Gupana, will bring the flag here on June 10 aboard a six-wheel truck, Quinto said.
He said Gupana made a new Philippine flag to replace the one unfurled in Nueva Vizcaya in September 2006.
That flag, which Gupana was hoping to set a record recognized by the Guinness World Records, was shredded by the wind after it was unfurled by more than 100 people on a hillside in the town of Aritao.
While Guinness did not recognize the 2006 flag, Gupana bagged the official record for another giant flag that she made -- an Israeli flag, unfurled last year in a desert in Masada, Israel.
The blue-and-white Israeli flag measured 660 meters by 100 meters and weighed 5.2 tons.
Gupana, chief executive officer of the ABS GEN Herbs International, said she decided two years ago to produce a giant Israeli flag in celebration of the 50 years of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Israel.
The Guinness Book of World Records announced in January that Gupana set two world records -- for making the world's largest flag and the world's largest banner.
Gupana received certificates from the Guinness World Records for the Israeli flag and for the "777 Yahveh's Banner," which combined the flags of Israel, the Philippines, North Korea, South Korea and 180 smaller flags of other countries. The banner measured 54,451 square meters.
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