Volunteers to help repair torn ‘super flag’

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — Hundreds of volunteers are expected to take part in bringing down today from a hill in Aritao town what was touted to be the world’s biggest flag but which strong winds ripped when it was unfurled last Saturday.

Sponsors of the "super flag" — a Philippine flag weighing nearly four tons and measuring 100 meters by 200 meters — said they are expecting help from overseas Filipinos, particularly in the United States, Israel, Switzerland, and Venezuela, for the restoration.

Strong winds tore the 100-percent nylon flag while it was being unveiled on Ynordinan Hill in Aritao town. The damage got worse as the giant flag was left exposed to the elements on the hillside.

Grace Galindez-Gupana, president of HalleluYah PG Tower Ministries Inc., said they are willing to shell out additional funding to repair the giant flag, whose size — 20,000 square meters — is equivalent to four football fields.

Gupana’s company, ABS Bitter Herbs-Philippines, was one of the sponsors of the project.

According to the project proponents, the giant flag will be brought down the hill at 3 p.m. today and transferred to a two-hectare plain where hundreds of volunteers would repair it using portable sewing equipment.

Gupana said the restoration would require P1.5 million and would take at least 20 days.

"We will be using the same material, but thicker or double-ply so it will now weigh six tons," she said, adding that only a prayer and a P10 donation from everyone would make the restoration come true.

Gupana, who hails from this landlocked province, said they were not discouraged by what happened to the flag, saying that even if it got torn, it was for them still the world’s biggest flag.

She expressed optimism that officials of the Guinness Book of World Records would eventually recognize it as the world’s biggest flag, dislodging the "super flag" of the United States of America.

The Philippine flag unfurled in Aritao was touted to be 30 percent bigger than the Guinness record holder. — With Katherine Adraneda