The seal is composed of the coat of arms of the president, which, according to consists of: The Seal of the President of the Philippines shall consist of the Coat-Of-Arms of the President of the Philippines, and a white circle around the Coat-of-Arms enclosed by two golden-yellow marginal rings. The white circle shall contain the words SAGISAG NG PANGULO NG PILIPINAS in black letters on the upper arc, the lower arc divided by three five-pointed golden-yellow stars. Some of the symbols in the arms are derived from the National Flag, and retain their meaning. The eight-rayed sun represent the eight provinces placed under martial law in 1896 at the onset of the Philippine Revolution. On the sun there is an equilateral triangle, representing liberty, equality, and fraternity, which were ideals of the Revolution. The stars at the corners of the triangle represent the three major island groups of Luzón, Visayas and Mindanao. At the center of the coat-of-arms is a Sea-lion, which is derived from the coat-of-arms of the City of Manila granted by Philip II of Spain in 1596. It has the upper half of a lion, and the lower half and curled tail of a fish. The Sea-lion as a heraldic device ultimately comes from the lion on the coat-of-arms of Castile and León; since the islands were an overseas possession, the lion became a sea lion.
History
The seal was first used by President Manuel Roxas in 1947. It was designed by Captain Galo B. Ocampo of the Philippine Heraldry Committee, who also designed the Coat of arms of the Philippines. The Seal was officially prescribed on January 7, 1947, when Executive Order № 38 of 1947 was signed into law. It prescribed the coat of arms and seal of the President as: On July 4, 1951, President Elpidio Quirino, signed Executive Order № 457 into law prescribing that: At the time of signing, the Philippines had 52 provinces. On August 27, 1998, President Joseph Estrada signed Executive Order № 19, amending Executive Order № 38 of 1947 in view of the fact that 1951, the number of provinces has increased to 78 and that there is a need to synchronize the number of stars to match the number of provinces at a given time. After Estrada's Executive Order came into law, Roxas's Executive Order read: On April 20, 2004, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Executive Order № 310, which standardized the Seal and its derivative material. The Seal as it appears on government documents and property has since been redesigned to conform with the Executive Order.
