Last modified: 2025-08-09 by 
zachary harden
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The Philippines are divided in large divisions called regions (English:
region/regions, Spanish: región/regiones, Filipino: rehiyon),
which in turn are divided into provinces, numbering of 79 (English:
province/provinces, Spanish: provincia/provincias, Filipino: lalawigan), plus
one national capital region, undivided and smaller in area than the average
province. Below this level there are municipal governments - a 1992 map refers
to the national capital, regional centers, province capitals and chartered
cities, some of these based on amalgamation. (English: city/cities, Spanish:
ciudad/ciudades, Filipino: lungsod/.)
Almost all flags are 1:2 plain cloths in one of 26 colors (see below), with the
province or city seal centered on it. The seal is always circular, measuring
7/10ths of the flag's height, typically bearing a shield of varying shape with
local heraldic bearings (the degree of heraldic correctness varying greatly but
quite low in average) on a solid background surrounded by an outlined ring
typically bearing the name of the entity. The specific typeface, color and exact
content of this inscription varies, but mostly it is dark sans serif; almost all
rings and seal backgrounds are white. This inscription may be either in English
or Filipino, official languages of the Philippines, tough many toponyms are in
Spanish, official language until 1908. The words "sagisag opisyal ng"
appear to mean "official seal of" in Filipino.
How many provinces were there in the Philippines at various times? I
have contacted Gwillim Law who maintains the site on subdivisions of the world
at
http://www.mindspring.com/~gwil/statoids.html. He is also author of the book
"Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", from which he quoted the list of
changes in the administrative system of Philippines. The list below for
reference, with data after 1995 taken from his site (as he suggested). From the
legislation on the presidential flag quoted by Manuel few days ago, we know that
51 is the right number for 1951, so this seems correct.
The current number of provinces is 81, so I suppose that there might have
been an additional split in 2002.
Željko Heimer, 18 November 2002
According to the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board at http://www.nscb.gov.ph/, there are 82 provinces. At time of independence (July 4, 1946) = 50 provinces:
It seems to me that the standard 1:2 plain-coloured flag with the city/provincial seal in the centre have remained unused since the fall of the Marcos regime, although I remember seeing on TV back in 1998 that in the Expo Filipino in Clark Air Base, provincial flags with the standard seal-on-plain-cloth design were displayed in an archway-like fashion at the park entrance, as part of Philippine centennial celebrations - the only one missing from the set would probably be the flag of Zamboanga Sibugay, a province created only in 2001. The notable thing is that the flag of Cagayan Province, which was adopted in 1970, does not appear in both the 1975 'Symbols of the State' book, and my TV sighting in 1998. What is the reason behind this and the uniformity that seems to be imposed on the provincial flags? I understand that the book from which most of the provincial/city flag images were based was printed in thirty years ago. Do the provinces and cities retain their 1975 flags as their de facto official flags until today? I have emailed provincial governments about this, but almost all have said that no flag exists for their province today - although matters as trivial as these can be easily overlooked in a country that's not too fond of vexillology.
Jay Allen Villapando, 15 June 2005