Due to Republic Act (RA) 9492 which was signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, certain holidays are moved to the nearest Mondays.
Under the new law, the following holidays are moved to the nearest Monday:
Araw ng Kagitingan (April 9)
Labor Day (May 1)
Independence Day (June 12)
National Heroes Day (August)
Bonifacio Day (November 30)
Rizal Day (December 30)
Ninoy Aquino Day (August 21)
This means that if the holiday will fall on Thursday like this year’s Ninoy Aquino Day (August 21), the holiday will be observed on the Monday of that week which was yesterday, August 18. If the holiday falls on Sunday, in would be observed on the following Monday.
The law also said that for movable holidays like Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Eid'l Fitr or the end of Ramadan,; the President shall issue a proclamation at least six months prior to the concerned holiday.
Now, the point here is about the advantages and disadvantages of moving some of the holidays to the nearest Monday.
Some of the people says that the new law is better for it provides somewhat a longer vacation period on weekends especially to the workers who were very busy with their works. Imagine, for a regular worker who works only on weekdays, meaning from Mondays to Fridays, they will experience a 3-day weekend rest including the holiday Monday. As well as the students lower than the College level, they will also experience this 3-day weekend rest.
Aside from this, for those who view the importance of momentum in school, this law is also an advantage to avoid loosing the momentum in school. For example, having the holiday at the middle of the school week might cause a loose in momentum for some students.
Well I guess, these would be the major advantages of the RA 9492.
There are also disadvantages of this one. But for me, there are only a few or even nothing which can be observed.
For me, the only disadvantage that I can see with this is thinking of the fact that I actually don’t have classes on Mondays. Engineering students of the University of Santo Tomas (Yeah! You got it, I’m a proud Tomasino Inhinyero Eng’Lupet) are up for school from Tuesdays to Saturdays only, meaning, holiday for us will just be considered as a normal rest day for Engineering Thomasians.
But actually, this argument is really a very minor disadvantage. I consider this scheduling situation as a major advantage for us compared to any other colleges. Why?! Simply because we are not prone for late or delayed discussions! Got it?! If not, then you may wish to have an extended time thinking about this matter.
