President Rodrigo Duterte was his usual fiery self when he delivered a speech Friday in his home city of Davao, but something went wrong.
Video of the speech aired live on state-run PTV-4 and the Presidential Communications Operations Office’s Facebook page showed the President giving his speech with the presidential seal on his rostrum upside down.
The gaffe occurred during the 11th Ambassador’s Tour Philippine Reception at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City.
For those who followed the broadcast, the error was observed until around the third minute of the live video, when the shot zoomed in on the President, cropping the seal out of the frame.
The circular presidential seal, adopted during the time of President Manuel Roxas, should be placed with the text “Sagisag ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas” positioned at the upper portion and the three stars at the bottom of the rim.
According to historian Manuel L. Quezon III, the presidential seal is composed of the coat of arms of the President of the Philippines, surrounded by the legend “Seal of the President of the Philippines” (“Sagisag ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas”).
“The blue circle is the shield; on the shield is a red triangle (representing liberty, equality, and fraternity, the ideals of the French and Philippine revolutions and our republic), on which is a sea lion and three stars,” he said on his blog.
Only the President uses the rostrum with the Presidential seal at any event.
On Saturday morning, state-run People’s Television (PTV) issued an official statement addressing the inverted Presidential seal. It reads:
“An error was committed in the installation of the Presidential seal at an event in Davao City yesterday (Friday).
There was, however, no attempt to embarrass the President.
A careful study determined the incident as an act of omission. Appropriate measures have been taken against those responsible.
All Offices involved in presidential visits and coverage have, upon meticulous review, instituted procedures to prevent the occurrence of a similar incident.
All Offices concerned sincerely apologize for the incident and renewed the shared commitment to uphold the highest standard of service and support for the President and all his engagements.”
Upon Coconuts’ research, there’s one other time the Presidential seal showed an inverted triangle and it was the seal used by the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos from 1981 to 1986.
With report from ABS-CBN News
