Did you know that there is a motion to add more vacation days during the Christmas season. Oh yeah! I am not kidding. Id this motion is passed, not only are we going to have the longest Christmas season in the whole world, but we are also going to be having the worlds longest official non-working holiday during the already looong Chrismas season.
Another reason to celebrate for most employees especially for the weekend warriors. Another bitter taste in the mouth on the side of big business ,foreign investors and also to the taxi drivers and others like him in the city.
A group of Manila employees turned weekend warriors enjoying a long weekend in Northern Luzon.
Just recently, House Bill 3152 was filed by a Cebuano representative in the lower house. Coined as Happy 8, it is "An Act Declaring Dec. 25 to Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 as Special Non-Working Holidays." According to the main proponent of the bill, he is just copying a bill in the United States where holidays are long weekends.
I am an employee, and I am pretty sure that I am going to benefit from this. It is either that I do not report for work at all during the said period (AS IF!!!) or that I work and be given additional pay incentive. Haha! Lucky me! But then again, I want this post to be socially relevant (LOL) and so I will try to prolong my rant.
The former administrator of the Republic of the Philippines (PH or PHL for short according to ISO standards ) made it automatic that holidays be celebrated the day next to Saturdays or Sundays for the very same reason. This allows people to travel and boost tourism and help SME's in the countryside. This is why we have seen in the last few years the surge of people going to the different tourist hotspots all over the Philippines. Now, just one look at the recent feeds in Facebook and we'd see photos and updates regarding our friends travels locally or even as far as going nearby countries . It used to be that mostly this type of trips happen only during the Philippines summer period. It is a different case now. Why do you think local travel and touring businesses peaked even if there was recession? Employees will not travel if there is a gap between the two day week-end and a holiday falling on a Tuesday or Thursday. That is not just practical. And so due to this, Anawangin was discovered by not just a few but by the throngs of Weekend Warriors who finally were able to find a way to spend holidays away from the city without thinking of the need to rush back after only one day of stay in Bohol or Pagudpud. And that is also the reason why Maricris Francisco and Jverly Pornea are in Sagada as of this writing hehe (sorry guys just cant help it since you did not invite your other classmates LIKE ME!!! LOL :D ).
Now back to where I was, the proponent of the bill was quoted by the Philippine Star as saying, ""The bill that I filed is very simple. It's called the 'Happy 8.' You know, I'm smart. My bill is only one page. I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. I just want to make something that will make people happy,"
First, to some degree the bill is a duplication of what is already being done or what was already being done. The previous administration made it a point to recognize long weekends, which is why they used to call it the holiday economics.
Big business like my man Ayala won't be taking the biggest hit, the ones to really lose are the small time guys left trying to make a living in the city who can't go to any province as there is simply no money to allow them to.
Second, the current administration basically said before that they find the former administrations holiday economics as unappealing to them. The main proponent of the bill is part of the current administration so there goes the question about the support factor from the current President who incidentally was widely supported by Big Business (except of course by Manny Villar's). If this bill passes, will Aquino sign it considering that it seemed they find almost all of Gloria's works as questionable. This the very same reason why November 2 was made a non-working holiday and then at the last minute the powers-that-be-had-second-thoughts and totally wiped out the idea.
Third, he based this from US standards. Compared to the Philippines, how many non-working holidays does the US have? The Philippines almost has one holiday every month. The US tends to celebrate only the Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas, Independence Day... (feel free to post a comment if there is any other holiday as I can't think of anything else.)
Personally, even if I find this beneficial to my personal needs for more moolah (hate this materialistic world LOL heheh), I find it still unfair for the company that I work for. There are some businesses who relies on fixed income especially the ones whose income are based on US working days. There are a lot of companies who are not tourism based. And there are companies who are in the brink of getting bankcrupt and it just so happened that the company that I am working for is one of those about-to-be-discarded (no I am just exaggerating). And I really think that they will bear the brunt of the 8 day non working holiday proposed by our smart Cebuano friend.
I can understand the vision of the honorable legislator but then again, he's got to look into the other side of the coin. Just this morning, my wife and I were talking about this abd the cab driver all of a sudden said, "How about us? If they are going to do that how many p[assengers will be left in the city? Those congressmen have all the money already, they do not even have to work even if it is not a holiday!"
Alright, alright he spoke in Tagalog and he added some slurs of hate but are you getting my point?? I am just translating it so our non-Tagalog speaking honorables will understand better!
It has to be balanced. All sectors has to be given adequate study. Anyways, that is what a law should be.. fairness for all.
My feelings for this... 50/50. Happy halloween guys!! Cheers!!
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