Great Seal of the Philippines
The Great Seal of the Philippines is used to authenticate official documents of the government of the Philippines.
It may refer to the physical seal itself or the design impressed upon it. By law, the President of the Philippines is given the custody of 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 did not employ a single great seal.American period
In 1903, a design by Melecio Figueroa, a Filipino engraver, for coinage was adopted for the design of the Great Seal under the United States-administered Insular Government. The seal featured Mayon Volcano and a Filipino woman in Filipiniana attire striking an anvil, surrounded by the text "United States of America, Government of the Philippine Islands". This seal has "never been legally adopted by the Philippine Commission" was supplanted by a design of 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, and 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.