Philippine Holidays 2011

The Philippine Holidays 2011 was finally announced by the government through Proclamation 84 acknowledging the declared list of Philippines’ 2011 Holidays.

In contrast to last year’s early announcement which was mid 2010, this year’s Philippine holidays‘ official declaration came at the end of the year.

Anyhow, one may observe from the list of Philippine Holidays below the absence of “holiday economics” from the previous administration which is the practice of moving a holiday to the nearest Monday in favor of long weekends (Republic Act 9492) to prep up local tourism.

Identified Holidays are

January    01 – New Year’s Day (Saturday)
February   25 – Edsa Revolution Anniversary (Friday) **
April       09 – Araw ng Kagitingan (Saturday)
April       21 – Maundy Thursday (Holy Week)
April       22 – Good Friday (Holy Week)
May        01 – Labor Day (Sunday)
April       09 – Araw ng Kagitingan (Saturday)
June       12 – Independence Day (Sunday)
August    21 – Ninoy Aquino Day (Sunday) *
August    29 – National Heroes Day (last Monday of August)
November 01 – All Saints Day (Tuesday) *
November 30 – Bonifacio Day (Wednesday)
December 25 – Christmas Day (Sunday)
December 30 – Rizal Day (Friday)
December 31 – Last Day of the Year (Saturday)*

All are regular holidays; marked appropriately otherwise
* special non-working days
** a special holiday for all schools.

This article’s source and proclamation further states that holidays for Eid’l Fitr and Eid’l Adha are yet to be declared: “…national holidays for the observance of Eid’l Fitr and Eidul AdhaHijra, or the lunar calendar, or upon Islamic astronomical calculations, whichever is possible or convenient, will be issued after the approximate dates of the Islamic holidays have been determined in accordance with the Islamic calendar.”

Comparing to last year’s Philippine Holidays 2010, I am missing the Iglesia ni Cristo Founding anniversary which was last year celebrated as a special national “working holiday” last July 27, 2010. Moreover, at the very least, October 31 (the Monday before November 1) and Decemebr 24, should also have been declared as a special holiday.

I wonder if this list of Philippine Holidays 2011will be criticized for removing the “holiday economics.” If you observed, most of the holidays fall on a weekend so the working class should expect few vacations and long weekends compared to previous years. Recent activities of other government agencies like the trivial errors of the new set of Philippine bills and Pilipinas Kay Ganda tourism campaign were also critcized. This is the first 2011 Philippine Holidays declaration of the Aquino administration.