Iloilo town flagpole fixed just in time for Independence Day rites with Aquino

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — The flagpole in Sta. Barbara town in Iloilo where the Philippine flag would be raised on the 117th commemoration of Independence Day suffered a snafu Thursday morning but was fixed in the afternoon just in time for President Aquino’s visit on Friday (June 12).

Workers rushed to fix the 36-meter flagpole after a portion of the rope where the flag was attached got stuck at the top of the pole around 10 a.m., Sta. Barbara Mayor Dennis Superficial said. Local authorities told the Inquirer Visayas bureau in the afternoon that the flagpole had been fixed and ready for the Independence Day rites on Friday.

Superficial said the 40 x 20 feet flag that would be used in Friday’s ceremony fell due to the glitch. He had vowed that the flagpole would be ready for use before the arrival of President Aquino on Friday. “We will find the means to fix it. It will be ready before (tomorrow’s ceremony),” he had said at the Iloilo provincial capitol where President Aquino was expected to visit.

The President would lead the flag-raising ceremonies in Sta. Barbara before hosting the traditional vin d’honneur at the restored old Iloilo provincial capitol in Iloilo City.

Superficial said two dry runs were conducted in preparation for the ceremony.

“The rope was new and it was tight when we first tested it. It became looser the second time but the hook probably gave way,” Superficial said.

He had said a boom truck, ladders and harnesses would be used to fix the flagpole, which stands in front of the municipal building and a few meters from the public plaza where Filipino revolutionaries first raised the Philippine flag outside of Luzon on Nov. 17, 1898.