GMA URGED TO STOP TAMPERING
WITH RECOGNIZED LEGAL HOLIDAYS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today called for an end to Malacañangs distasteful practice of moving important legal holidays to other days to give the people a long weekend in line with the administrations so called holiday economics.

Pimentel said this practice dilutes the importance and meaning of the holidays which are intended to enable the Filipino people to commemorate landmark events that have shaped the history and development of the nation.

He expressed dismay over President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos directive declaring June 12, this year (Tuesday) as working holiday and June 11 (Monday) a non-working holiday. June 12 marks the annual observance of the anniversary of Philippine Independence.

President Arroyo trivializes important public holidays, like Independence Day, by moving the celebration to other days. Changes cause holidays to lose meaning and transform them into leisure days when people in the cities go malling, the minority leader said.

Although June 12 was made a working holiday, the traditional ceremonies and programs in celebration of Independence Day were held throughout the country on that day just the same.

As a consequence, Pimentel said the people could not participate in the Independence Day rites in their respective communities since they either had to go to work or school.

He said the adverse effects of this was very evident in lack of public enthusiasm and sparse crowd at the Independence Day Parade in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila last Tuesday.

Pimentel said that while the size of the crowd at the Independence Day parade was disappointing, multitudes of people who were aboard their cars or public transport on their way to workplaces were cursing the government because of the monstrous traffic jams on the roads leading to Rizal Park.

This was the first time in the countrys history when Independence Day was declared a working holiday. This was embodied in President Arroyos Proclamation No. 1211 issued last January.

Ironically, Pimentel said Mrs. Arroyo, by issuing Proclamation 1211, in effect overturned the declaration of her own father in 1964 transferring Independence Day from July 4 to June 12.