History
''Bandera'' (first named as Metro Times) was first published on September 10, 1990, a brainchild of three ''Manila Times'' journalists, Ralph Chekeh, Danny Mariano and Ricky Agcaoili, with Lito Bautista as the pioneering managing editor (up to his retirement in 2014). It was then the sister newspaper of '' Manila Times'' under the Gokongwei family who acquired the broadsheet in 1989 from the Roces empire. The tabloid's first head office was located at the Manila Times Compound in Sgt. Santiago, Laging Handa, Quezon City but it was relocated to the old basement of Robinson's Supermarket in EDSA-Pioneer, Mandaluyong. English language are primarily used in its articles until they shifted to full Tagalog in the 2000s. Regular readers of ''Bandera'' then called the tabloid a part of the x-rated tabloids due to the appearance of Rosanna Roces as the Page 3 girl, Margie Holmes (who was a Palanca awardee) and Andromeda's Erotika columns. Moralists criticized ''Bandera'' for being an obscene and vulgar publication, that led to dozens of libel cases filed and an investigation by the Mandaluyong City Council. Lotto results and analysis and horse racing tips are some of the favorite parts of the tabloid. It also had "more daring" sister tabloids, ''Bandera PM'', ''Bandera Tonight'', and ''Bandera International'' Edition, catered for the Filipino OFWS, which published in Hong Kong and the Middle East. In 2000, the Prieto family, owner of PDI, acquired ''Bandera'' from the Gokongweis. During the acquisition period, it underwent smooth transition from a "mature" and "sexy" content shredding to its "wholesome" image. ''Bandera'' now had three separate editions, for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It underwent experimenting new concepts, such as Compact newspaper (combination of broadsheet and tabloid without crime reports or skimpy women on frontpage) and ''Klik Bandera'', which is the special weekend edition dedicated to showbiz news. It conquered online, thru the Inquirer Plus digital edition, where the full copy of ''Bandera'' issues can be seen online. The newspaper also has an official website, Facebook and Twitter handles and their smartphone application. ''Bandera'' launched several corporate social responsibility works, such as the Lapis and Papel project and flag distribution to schools across the country.See also
* ''References
{{Metro Manila Newspapers Publications established in 1990 National newspapers published in the Philippines Newspapers published in Metro Manila Philippine Daily Inquirer