MANILA, Philippines - The first thing the Philippine deputy chef-de-mission noticed upon his visit to the football venue of the 26th SEA Games was the Philippine flag being displayed upside down.
“The red side was up,” said Romeo Magat of the Philippine Lawn Tennis Association after his short visit to the different venues in Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia.
The Philippine flag being displayed with the red side at the top instead of the blue side indicates that the country is at war. When the blue field is up, it means the country is at peace.
“We are not at war. We come in peace so please reverse it,” Magat told Indonesian sports authorities.
In no time, the situation was remedied, and Magat said he thought the Philippine flags displayed around the city were also wrongfully displayed, and later on corrected.
“They acted quickly. They didn’t know how our flag was supposed to fly,” he said.
There’ve been similar situations when the Philippine flag was wrongfully displayed, including one when President Aquino met with US President Barack Obama in New York last year.
They sat beside each other in a long table at the United Nations office in New York along with the other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Right behind President Aquino was the Philippine flag with the red side up. The US Government apologized for the incident, saying it was “an honest mistake.”
The apology, of course, was accepted, just like in Indonesia.