Great Seal of the Philippines


The Great Seal of the Philippines is used to authenticate official documents of the Philippine government. It may refer to the physical seal itself or the design impressed upon it. Under the law, the President of the Philippines is given the custody to the seal.

Design and usage

Republic Act No. 8491 specifies a Great Seal for the Republic of the Philippines:

Historical designs

Seals of the Philippine Revolutionary states

The First Philippine Republic featured a seal composed of an equilateral triangle with three stars representing Luzon, Visayas, and "Mindanao and Sulu" and an eight-rayed sun. There were several variations of the seal such as different arrangement of the stars and the presence or absence of a face on the sun. The Republic of Biak-na-Bato, and Malolos Republic also used seals.

American period

The design of Melecio Figueroa, a Filipino engraver for a coinage system was adopted for the design of the great seal in 1903 for the Philippines under the United States-administered Insular Government. The seal featured the Mayon Volcano and a Filipino woman in Filipiniana attire as well as the text "United States of America, Government of the Philippine Islands". The seal described as "never been legally adopted by the Philippine Commission" was supplanted by a great seal designed by John R.M. Taylor in 1905 when a new coat of arms was also adopted.
The seal was revised when the Philippine Commonwealth was established in 1935. The new coat of arms was patterned after the Philippine flag. The seal was composed of the arms inscribed in a circle with the text "United States of America, Commonwealth of the Philippines". President Manuel L. Quezon adopted a new coat of arms and seal in through Executive Order No. 313 on December 23, 1940. The seal was not used despite its official adoption and the Commonwealth reverted to the 1935 seal on February 23, 1941.

Second Philippine Republic

The Second Philippine Republic of 1943 to 1945 adopted a different seal than the one used today. The seal adopted on October 1943 by then President Jose P. Laurel through Republic Act No. 5 is composed of a triangular emblem encircled by a double marginal circle. The law dictates the seal to be:

Post World War-II

After the dissolution of the Philippine Commonwealth and the granting of the full independence of the Philippines by the United States in 1946, a new coat of arms was adopted along with a great seal. The seal was composed of the seal inscribed in a double marginal circle with the text "Republic of the Philippines". The seal had little revisions. In 1978, President Ferdinand Marcos, included the motto "Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa" and the inscription of the seal was made into "Republika ng Pilipinas, Opisyal na Tatak".