HOLY week rolls along with only two working days for the country’s labor force, this as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Proclamation 1699 late last year.
According to the proclamation signed December 24, April 9, which is traditionally celebrated as the Araw ng Kagitingan is being moved to April 6, the Monday nearest to it.
Meanwhile, April 9 and 10 have been traditionally observed in the Christian world as the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, two of the most important days of solemn reflection in the Holy Week, thus both are declared regular holidays across the country.
The Presidential Proclamation then legitimizes the three holidays within the week and opens only Tuesday and Wednesday as the regular working day.
Sources from the Department of Labor and Employment also explained that leaving two working days in the week would eventually assure daily wage earners at least two days income to feed the family.
On Monday, when the country commemorates Araw ng Kagitingan, Filipinos also remember the tragic Fall of Bataan.
Fall of Bataan is an annual commemoration of the Filipino’s true spirit of freedom and valor when freedom defenders holed up in Mt. Samat in Bataan and Corregidor Island to stop the Japanese invaders from entering the Manila Bay.
The American and Filipino strong hold of Bataan is very crucial for the country as they delayed the Japanese occupation and thus prevented the Japanese forces from gaining a strategic control of the vast Pacific Ocean.
The eventual capture of the freedom defender’s bastions in Bataan also started the infamous Death March, where both Filipinos and Americans who fought side by side were forced to march from Bataan to Tarlac.
Along the way, thousands of Filipinos and Americans died of exhaustion and abuse.
On the other hand, in the religious tradition of the Christians, the whole Christendom bows in prayer in contemplation of the agonies of Christ, the Savior who eventually died to redeem the world.
The event is symbolically commemorated by days of prayer and fasting, especially on Good Friday when Christ would die while crucified. (rachiu/PIA)
