Agri chief Piñol owns up to PH flag blunder in Japan

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol (left), seen in this photo with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, owned up and apologized for a faux pax in Japan where the Philippine flag was upside down in one of his video presentations during the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte. PHOTO FROM MANNY PIñOL FACEBOOK PAGE

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol on Thursday apologized for “an honest mistake” after an inverted Philippine flag was shown in his presentation during a talk before Japanese investors.

“I apologize for the mistake and assure our countrymen that I had no intention of declaring war against anybody,” Piñol said in a statement.

During his presentation, one of the slides showing President Rodrigo Duterte and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe displayed a Philippine flag with the red banner on top.

“It was all an honest mistake,” Piñol said.

“The correct display of the Philippine flag should have the blue banner up and the red below it. Displaying the flag with the red banner up actually means that the country is at war,” he added.

The official said he saw the slide which contained the inverted Philippine flag just before he delivered his presentation.

“There was no more time to edit the power point presentation,” he said.

“The material was emailed to me from Manila only last night. I was not able to prepare ahead of time because I was not advised that I would be making a presentation during the business forum,” he added.

Piñol is in Japan as part of the delegation of President Duterte for his three-day official visit to the country. CBB