The School Flag Ceremony: What DepEd Requires

TL;DR: The school flag ceremony rests on two laws and one DepEd order. Republic Act No. 1265 made a daily ceremony compulsory in all educational institutions and gave the Secretary of Education authority to set the rules; Republic Act No. 8491, the Flag and Heraldic Code, requires flag raising every Monday morning and flag lowering every Friday afternoon and prescribes how participants stand; DepEd Order No. 50, s. 2015 sets the sequence for DepEd offices and public schools, which is Lupang Hinirang, Interfaith Prayers, the Panunumpa ng Katapatan sa Watawat ng Pilipinas, and the Panunumpa ng Lingkod Bayan for officials and employees only. There is no official DepEd prayer text. The order requires the prayer to be interfaith and leaves the wording to schools, which is why it varies.

The most common search around this topic is for an official DepEd prayer for the flag ceremony. The honest answer is that there is not one, and understanding why is more useful than copying somebody else's version. What DepEd prescribes is a position in the sequence and a quality: interfaith. Everything else is local.

The Legal Chain, in Order

DO 004, s. 2023 restates the chain of authority in its own opening paragraphs: RA 1265 authorised and directed the Secretary of Education to issue rules for the proper conduct of the flag ceremony, and RA 8491 and its implementing rules both reiterated DepEd's authority to issue orders on its observance for primary and secondary schools and other institutions of learning. If you want to trace this yourself, our guide on how to find DepEd orders explains where the originals live and how to tell a live issuance from a superseded one.

The Sequence DepEd Actually Prescribes

For DepEd central, regional and schools division offices and public schools nationwide, DO 50, s. 2015 sets the flag raising sequence as:

1. Singing of Lupang Hinirang
2. Interfaith Prayers
3. Recitation of the Panunumpa ng Katapatan sa Watawat ng Pilipinas
4. Recitation of the Panunumpa ng Lingkod Bayan, by Department officials and employees only

Step four is worth reading carefully. The Panunumpa ng Lingkod Bayan is the public servants' oath, and the order restricts it to Department officials and employees. Learners are not covered by it.

All officials and employees from the central, regional and schools division offices and public schools, including all public school learners who have morning classes, are required to join. Our overview of Schools Division Offices explains where the divisions sit in that structure.

Where Is the Panatang Makabayan?

It is not among the four items DO 50, s. 2015 enumerates. In practice a great many schools recite the Panatang Makabayan at the flag ceremony, and DepEd clearly still treats it as current, because it amended the text in 2023. What the 2015 order does is fix the four elements above; anything else in a school's Monday programme, including the Panatang Makabayan, a school hymn, announcements or a message from the school head, sits outside that enumerated sequence and is arranged locally.

This is a case where practice genuinely varies by division and by school rather than following one national script, and it is better to check your division memoranda than to assume. If your school's programme differs from a neighbouring school's, that is not necessarily an error.

Why There Is No Official Prayer Text

DO 50, s. 2015 names the step "Interfaith Prayers" and stops there. It supplies no wording, no length and no template, and DepEd has not since published a national script for it. That is a deliberate design rather than an oversight: a single prescribed prayer would defeat the point of the word interfaith in a school system serving Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, indigenous and non-religious families in the same assembly.

DO 004, s. 2023 gives the clearest window into how the Department reasons about this. In explaining why nananalangin replaced nagdarasal in the Panatang Makabayan, the order records that the term was chosen because it is rooted in Tagalog, because it is more inclusive and does not refer to or specify religions, and because it encompasses indigenous belief systems. The order also records that focal persons representing indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples, and individuals from Muslim and Moro communities, expressed a preference for dalangin over dasal as the more spiritual and universal word.

Applied to the flag ceremony invocation, that gives a workable standard for anyone drafting one locally: language that a learner of any faith, or none, can stand through without being asked to affirm a doctrine that is not theirs. Schools with a religious identity are treated differently by the order itself, as the next section explains.

Private and Faith-Based Schools Follow a Different Rule

DO 50, s. 2015 is explicit that in flag raising ceremonies conducted in private schools or faith-based learning institutions, the sequence with respect to the national anthem and the invocation need not be observed. The invocation is optional, or it may be done before the singing of the national anthem. In either case, the recitation of the Panunumpa ng Katapatan sa Watawat ng Pilipinas should follow.

The reason for the distinction is stated in the same order. There is no law categorically stating the order of a public ceremony, so DepEd followed the National Historical Commission of the Philippines protocol on the observance of commemorative events, under which the anthem precedes the invocation in official government functions. The order then notes that this may be distinguished from programmes or gatherings that are religious in nature or that are sponsored by or conducted in private or faith-based schools.

How Participants Must Stand

Section 21 of RA 8491, quoted in full inside DO 50, s. 2015, governs conduct rather than sequence:

• The assembly stands in formation facing the flag.
• At the first note of the anthem, everyone in the premises comes to attention and moving vehicles stop.
• All persons present place their right palms over their chests; those with hats uncover.
• Those in military, scouting, security guard and citizens military training uniforms give the salute prescribed by their regulations, completed on the last note of the anthem.
• The assembly sings the anthem, accompanied by a band if available, and the flag is raised briskly from the first note.
• The same procedure applies when the flag is passing in review or in parade.

Note that the law says the assembly sings. Playing a recording while everyone stands silent is not what the provision describes.

Programmes That Are Not Flag Ceremonies

DO 50, s. 2015 handles a second, separate case: official DepEd programmes that involve the singing of the national anthem, such as a division seminar or a school event. In central, regional and schools division offices and public schools, the singing of Lupang Hinirang comes before the invocation at the start of the programme proper, and the Panunumpa ng Katapatan sa Watawat ng Pilipinas and the Panunumpa ng Lingkod Bayan need not be recited. In programmes held in private schools, faith-based institutions and other gatherings religious in nature, the invocation is again optional or may be done before the anthem.

So the same building can correctly run two different orders of ceremony in one week, depending on whether Monday's flag raising or Wednesday's programme is in question.

Practical Notes for Teachers and Programme Hosts

• Write the invocation to the interfaith standard, and rotate who drafts it if your school has learners from several traditions.
• Keep the Panunumpa ng Lingkod Bayan to officials and employees. It is not a learner recitation.
• If your school adds the Panatang Makabayan, use the amended text under DO 004, s. 2023 rather than an older printout.
• For a programme rather than a flag ceremony, remember that the two panunumpa need not be recited at all.
• Check your division's memoranda before assuming a practice is national. The 2015 order fixes four elements; the rest of the Monday programme is local. Our explainer on what a DepEd Order is covers how division issuances relate to national ones, and the school calendar sets which Mondays are class days in the first place.

Disclaimer: the wording of invocations, the inclusion of school hymns and additional programme items, and the assembly arrangements for schools running shifts are decided at school and division level. Confirm your school's practice with your school head rather than adopting another school's programme wholesale.

Sources

• DepEd — DO 50, s. 2015, Observance and Conduct of Flag Raising and Lowering Ceremonies (official)
• DepEd — DO 004, s. 2023, Amendment to Panatang Makabayan (official)
• Official Gazette — Republic Act No. 8491, Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines
• LawPhil — Republic Act No. 1265, An Act Making Flag Ceremony Compulsory in All Educational Institutions
• Supreme Court E-Library — Rules and Regulations Implementing Republic Act No. 8491

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