House eyes 7 more holidays

MANILA, Philippines - Congressmen, who work only three days a week and go on month-long vacations at least five times a year, want an additional seven holidays for workers.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago said there are several pending House bills that seek to declare seven more non-working days in addition to the 16 holidays already prescribed by law or presidential order.

He said these are Feb. 4 (Philippine-American War Heroes Day), Chinese New Year (movable date), March 18 (Bangsamoro Day), March 22 (Emilio Aguinaldo Day), June 19 (Jose Rizal Day), Sept. 1 (Filipino Family Day), and Nov. 20 (Children’s Day).

Under Republic Act 9492 and Presidential Proclamation 1699, there is a total of 11 regular and five special non-working holidays this year.

The regular holidays are New Year’s Day (Jan. 1), Maundy Thursday (April 9), Good Friday (April 10), Eid’l Fitr (movable date, depending on the Islamic calendar), Araw ng Kagitingan (April 6), Labor Day (May 1), Independence Day (June 12), National Heroes Day (Aug. 30), Bonifacio Day (Nov. 30), Christmas Day (Dec. 25) and Rizal Day (Dec. 30).

The special holidays are Ninoy Aquino Day (Aug. 21), All Saints’ Day and the day after (Nov. 1 and 2), the day before Christmas (Dec. 24), and the last day of the year (Dec. 31).

Santiago, who was once criticized for absenteeism, said he is against proposals to declare additional holidays, as this could weigh down on the country’s economic output.

“If we must mark additional eventful days via new legislation, we would prefer that they be classified strictly as rest days for schools only, or special working days,” he said.

Santiago, who chairs the House information and communications technology committee, said he supports the business community’s call for Malacañang to limit additional non-working days to the minimum.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila had warned that extra non-working holidays would result in low productivity not just in the booming outsourcing sector, but across all industries as well.

BPAP’s member-companies, mostly independent contact center contractors, operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employ over 400,000 Filipino workers.