Constitutional and statutory basis
- Executive Order No. 23 is grounded on Section 1, Article XIII of the Constitution, which prescribes the Philippine National Flag without providing descriptions.
- Executive Order No. 23 implements Act No. 2928, which describes the construction of the Filipino Flag.
- Executive Order No. 23 is issued to prevent non-uniform compliance that causes flags to be made with incorrect proportions of allegorical symbols.
Policy and purpose of uniformity
- Executive Order No. 23 requires strict observance of the Constitutional provisions and Act No. 2928 with uniformity.
- Executive Order No. 23 is enacted to avoid irregularities and discrepancies in the making of Filipino flags.
Coverage: who must observe
- Executive Order No. 23 applies to all civil and military branches of the Government.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires these branches to strictly observe the flag specifications it sets out.
Core specifications: flag dimensions
- Executive Order No. 23 provides that the maximum length of the flag is twice its width.
- Executive Order No. 23 provides that the minimum length is twice the altitude of the equilateral triangle.
- Executive Order No. 23 provides that any side of the equilateral triangle is as long as the width of the flag.
Core specifications: sun and rays
- Executive Order No. 23 requires the sunburst to be solid golden.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires the sun to have eight rays, equally spaced, with no markings other than the specified structure.
- Executive Order No. 23 fixes the ray geometry using the stated relations: Arc x with Sun ray equals Free arc y; with two opposite rays on the horizontal axis and two opposite rays on the vertical axis.
- Executive Order No. 23 defines the sun diameter as D = w/5.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires each ray to have one major beam and one minor beam on either side, with the major beam twice as broad as the minor beam on either side.
- Executive Order No. 23 fixes lengths using the sun diameter: the major beam length is R = 5/9 D and the minor beam length is r = 4/5 R.
- Executive Order No. 23 includes an illustration of the flag to guide these geometric specifications.
Core specifications: stars and placement
- Executive Order No. 23 requires three five-pointed golden stars of equal size.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires each star to have one point directed to the vertex of the angle enclosing it.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires the diameter of the circumscribed circle of each star to be 5/9 D.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires the diameter of the inscribed circle of each star to be 2/9 D.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires the distance from each corner to be D/2.
Core specifications: edges and fringe
- Executive Order No. 23 provides that the canvas-trimmed edge to the left of the triangle is approximately D/5 wide.
- Executive Order No. 23 provides that the canvas-trimmed edge of approximately D/5 is not counted in measuring the flag length.
- Executive Order No. 23 requires that silk flags be trimmed on three edges with a knotted fringe of yellow silk.
- Executive Order No. 23 fixes the fringe width on silk flags at D/5.
Execution and effectual compliance
- Executive Order No. 23 mandates strict compliance by civil and military government branches for correct flag construction.
- Executive Order No. 23 measures compliance by adherence to the specified geometric relations and proportions for the flag’s components.