Public Holidays in the Philippines

Also known as: Philippine holidays · Legal holidays (older usage from the American-era acts) · Regular holidays and special non-working days (the two statutory classes) · Non-working days (colloquial umbrella)

Society

Definition

Public holidays in the Philippines are the days on which work and classes are suspended or specially compensated nationwide by operation of law — a system built on Section 26, Chapter 7, Book I of the Administrative Code of 1987 (Executive Order No. 292), as rewritten by Republic Act No. 9492 (2007), and implemented year by year through presidential proclamations. The statute recognizes two nationwide classes — regular holidays, which carry holiday pay even without work, and nationwide special days (in practice “special non-working days”), which do not — while the yearly proclamations shade the second class further into “additional special (non-working) days” and, occasionally, “special working days,” as when Proclamation No. 1006 (s. 2025) kept the EDSA anniversary of February 25, 2026 a working day. (Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines, Official Gazette — RA 9492, Official Gazette — Proclamation No. 1006, Inquirer — 2026 holidays)

Pay treatment follows the class: under the pay rules DOLE issues in labor advisories, an employee who does not work a regular holiday is paid 100 percent of the daily wage, and one who works is paid 200 percent for the first eight hours — 260 percent if the holiday is also the rest day — while a special non-working day is “no work, no pay” unless the employer voluntarily pays, and work on that day earns 130 percent. The movable Islamic observances, Eidul Fitr and Eidul Adha, are set by separate proclamation on the advice of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, and movable dates must be proclaimed at least six months in advance. (Inquirer — DOLE pay rules, Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines, LawPhil — RA 9492)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Public holidays in the Philippines
Wikidata	public holidays in the Philippines (Q838447)
DBpedia	Public holidays in the Philippines
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	holiday (English noun — “a day declared free from work by the state or government”; no lemma for the Philippine system)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A — id.loc.gov search this session located the heading only in Children’s Subject Headings (Holidays, sj2021050313) and LC Classification HV3167
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	public holidays Philippines regular holiday special non-working day RA 9492 holiday economics Executive Order 292 Section 26 Act 1818 Labor Day Act 345 Rizal Day Bonifacio Day Araw ng Kagitingan proclamation holiday pay 200 percent no work no pay Labor Code
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

Philippine holidays
Legal holidays (older usage from the American-era acts)
Regular holidays and special non-working days (the two statutory classes)
Non-working days (colloquial umbrella)

Examples and Analogies

Two ledgers, two consequences: a regular holiday is a paid day — 100 percent unworked, 200 percent worked — while a special non-working day is unpaid by default and pays 130 percent only if worked; the proclamation’s choice of class is therefore a payroll decision for every employer in the country. (Inquirer — DOLE pay rules, Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines)
A calendar made by two hands: the statute fixes the defaults, and the yearly proclamation applies them — Proclamation No. 1006 of September 3, 2025 fixed the 2026 calendar, listing Araw ng Kagitingan on April 9, Labor Day on May 1, and Rizal Day on December 30, and Chinese New Year, Black Saturday, All Souls’ Day, and Christmas Eve as additional special non-working days. (Official Gazette — Proclamation No. 1006, Inquirer — 2026 holidays)
The Eid exception: because the Islamic calendar is lunar, the two Eid holidays are statutes without dates — the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos informs the Office of the President, which proclaims them separately. (Inquirer — 2026 holidays, Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines)
Verified data (statutory register):
Act No. 345 (1902): the Philippine Commission’s foundational holidays act — New Year’s Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Christmas, and Rizal Day (December 30) (Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines)
Act No. 1818 (April 30, 1908): amended Act No. 345 “so as to make the first day of May an official holiday” — the statutory origin of Labor Day — and empowered the Governor-General to proclaim occasional holidays (SC E-Library — Act No. 1818)
RA No. 9492 (2007): rewrote EO 292 Section 26; under its text Araw ng Kagitingan, Labor Day, Independence Day, Bonifacio Day, and Rizal Day were set to “the Monday nearest” their historic dates — “holiday economics” — while New Year’s Day and Christmas stayed fixed and Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Eidul Fitr stayed movable (LawPhil — RA 9492, Official Gazette — RA 9492)
Current regular holidays (2026): New Year’s Day (January 1), Maundy Thursday (April 2), Good Friday (April 3), Araw ng Kagitingan (April 9), Labor Day (May 1), Independence Day (June 12), National Heroes Day (August 31), Bonifacio Day (November 30), Christmas (December 25), Rizal Day (December 30), plus the Eids by proclamation (Inquirer — 2026 holidays)

Usage Scenarios

1. Payroll and Labor Compliance

Employers compute holiday pay from the DOLE advisories issued each year — the 100/200 percent regular-holiday rates, the 130 percent special-day rate, the plus-30 percent overtime and rest-day add-ons — with the “present or on paid leave on the preceding workday” condition governing eligibility for unworked regular-holiday pay. (Inquirer — DOLE pay rules)

2. Drafting the National Calendar

Every administration issues the year’s proclamation months ahead — Proclamation No. 1006 was signed September 3, 2025 for calendar 2026 — and schools, transport operators, and retailers build their calendars around it. (Official Gazette — Proclamation No. 1006, Inquirer — 2026 holidays)

3. Legal and Historical Research

The lineage of each holiday runs through the acts — Act No. 345 (1902) for Rizal Day, Act No. 1818 (1908) for May 1, Act No. 2946 for Bonifacio Day, RA No. 3022 for the Day of Valor, RA No. 4166 (1964) for June 12, and the Eid statutes — the register this wiki’s individual holiday entries carry. (Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines, SC E-Library — Act No. 1818)

4. Business Continuity and Scheduling

Cross-border firms map the Philippine calendar against their own — long weekend patterns, Holy Week closures, and the late-December cluster from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Eve dominate the operating calendar. (Inquirer — 2026 holidays)

5. Commemoration and Civic Ritual

Each regular holiday carries its own ceremonies — Araw ng Kagitingan, Rizal Day, Bonifacio Day — fixed in date by the proclamation calendar. (Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines)

Strategies

Read the proclamation, not the statute alone: Section 26 operates “unless otherwise modified by law, and or proclamation” — the annual proclamation fixes the operative dates each year, as Proclamation No. 1006 did for 2026. (LawPhil — RA 9492, Official Gazette — Proclamation No. 1006)
Class first, date second: the payroll consequence turns on whether a day is a regular holiday, a special non-working day, or a special working day — the date alone never answers the question. (Inquirer — DOLE pay rules)
Watch the six-month rule for movable dates: movable holidays must be proclaimed at least six months ahead, which is why the year’s calendar appears in the third quarter of the preceding year. (LawPhil — RA 9492)
Track the holiday lineages separately: remember which statute created each holiday — 1908 for Labor Day, 1964 for June 12 — rather than memorizing the current list. (SC E-Library — Act No. 1818, Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines)

Security and Safety Measures

Verify against the Official Gazette: fabricated holiday lists circulate on social media every year; the signed proclamation is the controlling text. (Official Gazette — Proclamation No. 1006)
Apply the eligibility conditions, not just the rates: the 100 percent unworked regular-holiday pay belongs to employees who report or are on paid leave on the workday immediately preceding the holiday; daily-rated workers outside that condition fall to “no work, no pay.” (Inquirer — DOLE pay rules)
Distinguish working from non-working special days: a “special working holiday” — the EDSA anniversary in 2026 — suspends nothing and pays no premium; misreading the class underpays or overpays a workforce. (Inquirer — 2026 holidays)

Historical Context

The American-era statutes built the calendar: Act No. 345 (1902) set the founding list including Rizal Day; Act No. 1818 (April 30, 1908) made May 1 Labor Day; later consolidation followed in the 1917 Administrative Code; and successive acts added Bonifacio Day, National Heroes Day (1931), the Day of Valor, and Independence Day on June 12 (1964). The 1987 Administrative Code codified ten regular holidays and two nationwide special days, and Republic Act No. 9492 (approved July 2007) rationalized the list under “holiday economics” — moving five patriotic holidays to the Monday nearest their historic dates to manufacture long weekends. (Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines, SC E-Library — Act No. 1818, LawPhil — RA 9492)

Practice has since walked the Monday rule back: the yearly proclamations now declare the five holidays on their actual dates — Proclamation No. 1006 put them on April 9, May 1, June 12, November 30, and December 30 for 2026 — while the statute still carries the Monday default. Later statutes added to the calendar: RA No. 9849 made Eidul Adha nationwide, and RA No. 10966 added December 8 as a special non-working day; Proclamation No. 368 (2023) dropped February 25 from the 2024 list, a demotion repeated for 2026. (Inquirer — 2026 holidays, Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines, Official Gazette — Proclamation No. 1006)

Challenges and Controversies

The Holiday-Economics Debate

RA 9492’s Monday-nearest rule for five patriotic holidays — defended as tourism stimulus and attacked as a distortion of history — remains on the statute books even as the annual proclamations quietly restore the historic dates; the gap between statutory text and proclaimed practice is a standing confusion for payroll and compliance. (LawPhil — RA 9492, Inquirer — 2026 holidays)

The Approval Date of RA 9492 Disagrees With Itself

The Official Gazette’s text of RA 9492 carries the approval July 24, 2007, while the widely mirrored LawPhil copy prints “Approved: July 25, 2007” in the signature block — a one-day discrepancy worth noting since secondary sources repeat both. (Official Gazette — RA 9492, LawPhil — RA 9492)

The EDSA Anniversary’s Demotion

Since Proclamation No. 368 (2023) dropped February 25 from the 2024 holiday list and Proclamation No. 1006 kept it a mere special working day for 2026, the People Power anniversary’s status has become an annual political signal. (Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines, Inquirer — 2026 holidays)

“No Work, No Pay” and the Working Poor

Because special non-working days carry no statutory pay, each proclamation that pads the calendar with them lengthens unpaid idleness for daily-rated workers even as salaried employees lose nothing; labor advocates and employers contest the balance every year. (Inquirer — DOLE pay rules, Wikipedia — Public holidays in the Philippines)