Another long weekend coming

Get ready for another long weekend.

Malacañang decided yesterday to move the observance of Labor Day, a non-working holiday that will fall on a Wednesday, to April 29, a Monday.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said the administration has made it a policy to move all official non-working holidays that fall during mid-week to Mondays.

While the break from work will always be on a Monday, the celebrations marking the event will still be held on the actual date of the holiday, Tiglao explained.

President Arroyo will deliver her Labor Day message at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park.

Tiglao dismissed speculations that the Labor Day holiday move is meant to foil a repeat of last year’s Labor Day siege on Malacañang by thousands of supporters of ousted President Joseph Estrada.

Earlier, a ranking police official said key figures in the opposition plan to commemorate the first anniversary of the failed bloody siege on Malacañang, but their real plan is to destabilize the Arroyo administration.

Tiglao said they are expecting no trouble. "No, I think it will be a regular uneventful day," he said.

Press Undersecretary Roberto Capco said the administration’s policy of moving holidays to Mondays is meant to enable families to enjoy long weekends together and encourage them to visit the provinces, thereby also boosting domestic tourism.

In line with that policy, the national commemoration of Araw ng Kagitingan was observed yesterday as a regular working day, and the Monday before that was declared a non-working holiday.

Capco said private and government employees will be given the option to choose whether they will report for work on April 29 or on May 1. And the employee will be entitled to overtime pay whether he reports for work on April 29 or May 1.

In May last year, thousands of Estrada supporters, mostly from the poor, gathered at the EDSA Shrine calling for Estrada’s reinstatement as President after his arrest by authorities for alleged corruption.

Egged on by pro-Estrada politicians, the demonstrators marched to Malacañang to forcibly oust Mrs. Arroyo, only to be beaten back by security forces. — Marichu Villanueva