Update as of August 13, 2012: Good news for those of us who are planning to have a vacation this coming weekend. President Aquino has already signed Proclamation No. 455, declaring Monday, August 20, 2012, as a regular holiday throughout the country in observance of Eid’l Fitr – the Feast of Ramadan. With this declaration by the Malacañang, Filipinos will be having Monday August 20 and Tuesday August 21 (Ninoy Aquino Day) as non-working holidays.
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Is August 20, 2012 a Holiday in the Philippines? If you’re a student, a government worker, or a private employee, you might be asking your classmates, teachers, co-workers, your boss, or your friends if August 20, which falls on Monday, is a non-working holiday. On the other hand, if you’re a business owner or an employer, it is also important for you to know whether the said date will be a non-working holiday or not for the purpose of computing your workers’ wages or compensation. This is probably the reason why you landed on this page and is now reading this post – you want to be sure if the said date is officially a non-working holiday.
Most of us want to know if August 20, 2012 (Monday) is a holiday since August 21 (Tuesday) is already declared a Special Non-working Day. If Monday will be officially declared as a Holiday, workers will be enjoying a long weekend vacation, and if not a vacation, they will be benefiting from additional compensation or overtime pay for working on holidays. You may check out our post on how to compute overtime pay in the Philippines here.
Based on Proclamation No. 295 issued last November 2011 by Malacañang, declaring Regular Holidays, Special (Non-working) days and Special Holiday for the year 2012, August 2012 has one regular holiday and one special non-working holiday. The regular holiday is on August 27 (last Monday of August) which is our National Heroes day, while the special non-working holiday is on August 21 (Tuesday) which is Ninoy Aquino Day. You may check the list of Official Holidays for 2012 in the Philippines in this post.
Also according to Proclamation No. 295 section 2, the proclamations declaring national holidays for the observance of Eid’l Fitr and Eidul Adha shall hereafter be issued after the approximate dates of the Islamic holidays have been determined in accordance with the Islamic calendar (Hijra) or the lunar calendar, or upon Islamic astronomical calculations, whichever is possible or convenient.
This means that aside from the August 20 and 27 Holidays, Filipinos will also have an additional national holiday on the month of August which will be on the day of Eid’l Fitr. The observance of Eid’l Fitr marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. It is also the first day of the month Shawwal in Islamic calendar. The Ramadan was officially started in the Philippines on Saturday July 21, 2012. It was supposed to start on Friday, July 20, but there was no sighting of the new moon on July 19, so the start of fasting day was moved to July 21. The month of Ramadan is expected to end on Sunday, August 19, 2012, which also means that Eid ul Fitr may be celebrated on that date.
As at this moment, there is no declaration yet from President Benigno S. Aquino III, declaring that August 20, 2012 is a non-working holiday. The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) has yet to inform the Office of the President on which day the holiday shall fall. It also shows that the month of Ramadan might end on August 19, which is on Sunday. But we can’t yet tell when exactly the Official Holiday in celebration for the Eid ul Fitr is.
As for now, we are hoping that the Office of the President will now officially declare the exact date of the Holiday for celebrating Eid ul Fitr to clear the questions of many Filipinos. Not only workers and laborers are needing that answer to properly plan their expected long weekend vacation, but employers and business owners also need to know how they will compute the exact amount of wages for their employees.
Stay tuned for more updates. You may also visit the Official Gazette of the Philippines for the latest presidential announcements.
