TOPICAL PHILIPPINES
People
MARCELA AGONCILLO
24 June 1860 to 30 May 1946
Family Links:
Felipe Agoncillo - Husband
Marcela Agoncillo was the principal seamstress of the first and official flag of the Philippines gaining her the title of Mother of the Philippine Flag.
At the age of 30, Agoncillo married Filipino lawyer Felipe Agoncillo and bore him six children. In 1895 when her husband was exiled to Hong Kong during the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution, Agoncillo and the rest of the family joined him. While in Hong Kong, General Emilio Aguinaldo requested her to sew a flag according to his design that would represent their country and embody the national aspirations of all Filipinos.
Agoncillo, her eldest daughter (Lorenza "Enchang") and a friend (Delfina Herbosa de Natividad, Jose Rizal's niece by his sister Lucia) manually sewed the flag in accordance with General Aguinaldo's design which later became the official flag of the Philippines.
The three worked for five days. Made from fine silk which she bought in Hong Kong the flag was embroidered in gold and contained stripes of blue and red and a white triangle with the sun and three stars on it.
On 17 May 1898, the flag was delivered personally by Agoncillo and was packed among the things Aguinaldo brought back to Manila. This was the flag that was hoisted from the window of Aguinaldo's house in Kawit, Cavite, during the proclamation of Philippine independence on 12 June 1898. However, she did not witness either this first public display of the flag or the time when the flag was unfurled during the Malolos Congress because she remained in Hong Kong with her husband and daughters Kong until 1906.
Definitive and imperf variety #1199, 24 Sept 1973 and #1199a, 16 Apr 1974
__________________
Government and Business
Arts & Science
Independence
Other Groups