The Marikina City local government released a statement on Sunday, Aug. 6, calling out the company responsible for the drone presentation that showed the Philippine flag upside down during the closing festivities of the 2023 Palarong Pambansa on Saturday, Aug. 5.
After the victory concert on Saturday night, a drone showcase was prepared. The drones were meant to form images of the Philippine islands, the national flag, and a shoe symbolizing Marikina.
However, the formation of the flag was interchanged, with the red portion of the flag at the top, and the blue at the bottom.
Based on the rules and regulations implemented within Republic Act (RA) No. 8491 or the “Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines,” hanging the flag horizontally with the blue field on top signifies a “time of peace,” meanwhile the red field on top signifies “a time of war.”
“Sa selebrasyon ng pagtatapos ng 63rd Palarong Pambansa ay parte ng programa ang isang drone show mula sa supplier ng lungsod na Dronetech PH (In the celebration of the 63rd Palarong Pambansa, a part of the program was a drone show from Dronetech PH, the supplier of the city),” read the statement released by the city’s Public Information Office (PIO).
“Mariing kinondena ng Marikina City Government sa pangunguna ni Mayor Marcy Teodoro ang pangyayari at pinapakasuhan ang Dronetech PH upang madetermina ang mga legal na pananagutan ng kumpanya kasama na rin ang mga kalakip na kaparusahan at multa (The Marikina City government, led by Mayor Marcy Teodoro, strongly condemns the incident, and are looking to press charges on Dronetech PH in order to determine the legal accountability of the company, along with its corresponding punishments and penalties),” it added.
Meanwhile, Dronetech PH released its own public statement, apologizing to the “City of Marikina, Mayor Teodoro, the whole country, its people, and the Philippine government” for their “grave error” in the incident.
“We would like to clarify that this error in the Drone Show programming which was supposed to be tested days before could have been noticed and corrected was not successfully done due to the severe weather conditions, and signal interference on the said area for several nights,” the company said.
“Moving forward we will make sure to execute proper protocols in testing our future shows,” it added.
The company stressed that the error was “unintentional,” and was “innocently made with no malice or bad intentions on anyone and the people of Marikina, and the Philippines as a whole.”