A violent reaction to the fuckin' proposal of a ninth ray on our flag!

I have always been a reader of history and this same history dictates me to react to this bicameral plan to revise the present flag. I think our flag has been with us for the longest time, it served us in our time of darkness, our hard fought battles even up to now... why change it?

Let me quote the late great Teodoro A. Agoncillo on this issue:

"For us to add or subtract one or more ray in our flag is to twist the facts of the history of Revolution of 1986, since the flag was made in the crucible of the Revolution. An addition of a ray to the present eight rays of the sun would mean that the Muslims were the one of the first to rise in arms against Spain in 1986. This is not only unhistorical; it is also anti-historical, a clear case of prevarication of our history, for an addition of an extra ray to the present rays would create something out of nothing. The Muslims never participated in the revolution of 1986; nor did they participate in the war against the United States. On the contrary, the Muslim Sultan and his datus signed the so-called Bates treaty of 20 August 1899 by the terms of which the United States declared his sovereignty over the archipelago of Jolo and it's dependencies and in exchange for this, the United States agreed to pay the Sultan and his datus a monthly stipend. This agreement was concluded at a time when the people of Luzon and the Visayas, particularly Iloilo, Cebu, Samar, were dying to protect what was their own against the imperialistic pretensions of the Americans. These are the facts that cannot be blurred or erased by... mawkishness or by feeling of pakikisama. One thing is very clear: the Muslims never participated either in the revolution of 1896 or in the war against the Americans in 1899-1901.

There is one other point that should be emphasized in connection with the Muslim campaign to add a ninth ray to the present eight rays of our sun. And it is that the Muslims, in thus asking for a ninth ray, are inconsistent. They take pride in not having been under Spanish rule and were therefore independent. Being independent, they were not Filipinos, for they did not recognize the authority of Spain over them and refused to be subjects of king Philip II and the succeeding Spanish sovereigns. If they were independent and not Filipinos, why do they now ask to be retroactively under Spain who fought the revolution of 1896?

Let not our Muslim brothers destroy the history of the revolution by making it appear that they actively participated in that upheaval which led ultimately to Philippine independence... They should not intrude into the Philippine revolution of 1986 because they did nothing to help their Christian brothers in the struggle for freedom and independence... It is enough that they are represented in the present flag with one star; to ask for more is to abuse history."

So vivid and so true. I rest my case.