Courts closed until January 4, 2015

CEBU, Philippines – Courts officials and employees are in for a long vacation this Christmas.

With the Supreme Court’s earlier pro-nouncement that work is half-day today, workers of the judiciary would be returning to work on January 5 yet.

December 24 to 26 were declared as holidays, while December 27 and 28 fall on a weekend.

December 29 is a special non-working holiday pursuant to AM No. 14-01-02-SC, October 21, 2014, as well as January 2, 2015 pursuant to AM No. 14-01-03-SC, October 21, 2014.

December 30 to January 1 are declared holidays, which would be followed by January 3, which is a Saturday, and January 4, which is a Sunday.

Lawyer Jeoffrey S. Joaquino, Regional Trial Court in Cebu City clerk of court, said they December 29, 2014 and January 2, 2015 were also declared as special non-working holidays by the SC.

At the Cebu City Hall, while there was no official announcement yet from Mayor Michael Rama as of press time, City Administrator Dr. Lucelle Mercado  said it has been a practice that December 23 is half-day work so employees could prepare for the holidays.

She said the remaining days for the month are non-working days except on December 29, when work and other transactions would continue.

Mercado said regular office hours will resume on January 5, but employees are still on call during the entire season.

“On vacation sila but on call sila in case dunay emergencies and kun dunay angay buhaton ug trabahoon,” she said.

The city administrator is encouraging City Hall employees to finish all their paper works and assigned tasks before the year ends to start 2015 have a serene and systematic 2015. — /RHM (FREEMAN)