Nobody knows from where the red, white and blue flag that hangs anonymously in a corner of a display case in San Francisco's War Memorial Building came. The weathered satin banner can be easily missed among the swords, rifles and medals of various wars that surround it.
But the flag, with its hand-painted yellow sun surrounded by three stars, may very well be the first Filipino "Stars and Sun" flag, which was believed to have been captured by U.S. troops more than a century ago during the Philippine-American War. SFGate.Com
American Legion War Memorial Commissioner Rudy Asercion thinks it is the original Filipino flag sewn and painted by Marcella Agoncillo.
The report mentions that Senators Dick Gordon and Franklin Drilon, and a representative of the country's National Historical Institute in Manila have gone to San Francisco to look at the flag.
I have not come across this story in any local newspapers (have you?). Didn't Gordon and Drilon think this was important enough to issue a public statement about? Or did they and media didn't think it important enough? Alright, perhaps I just missed the story if it had in fact appeared in any local paper.
It sounds so ironic that the flag hangs--forgotten--in the museum's "Trophy Room." Kind of symbolic, to my mind. A forgotten trophy.
On March 23, 1901, American forces led by [Gen. Frederick] Funston captured Aguinaldo. Historians believe the flag was taken as a souvenir, possibly by Funston, who then resided in San Francisco until his death in 1917...Id.
Duh! The Philippines should demand a public apology from the United States. In fact, instead of playing the role of the eager-to-please slave, the Philippine government should demand an apology and reparations from the United States for snatching our independence, and killing our revolutionaries, towards the end of the 19th century.
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