October 28 2013 Philippine holiday – Barangay Elections
President Benigno Aquino III has declared October 28, the last Monday of the month, as a special non-working holiday. The triennial barangay elections is scheduled to be held on the said day. The president made the announcement through Presidential Proclamation 656, which he signed last September 25. Access the full text of proclamation 656 here.
Aquino made a similar declaration (Proclamation 571) in connection with the midterm polls held last May. Designating October 28 as a holiday is meant to give Filipinos “the fullest opportunity to participate in the elections and (to) exercise their right to vote.”
Aside from the barangay elections, the Sangguniang Kabataan polls is also scheduled to be held on that day though a bill that seeks to defer it to February 2015 has already been passed in Congress.
As The Filipino Scribe noted before, not declaring October 28 a holiday may seriously affect voters’ turnout since the Philippines currently does not allow early voting unlike in the United States.
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