Angara wants Lunar New Year declared special holiday

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sonny Angara is pushing for a measure seeking to declare the Lunar New Year a special non-working holiday in the Philippines in recognition of the contributions of the Chinese people to the country’s development as a nation.

Angara has filed Senate Bill 1012 or an act declaring Chinese New Year’s Day a special non-working holiday in the Philippines.

“In view of the long relations with the Chinese, this bill recognizes the contributions of the Chinese to our development as a nation… This proposed measure seeks to declare the annual celebration of Chinese New Year’s Day in the Philippines as a special non-working holiday in the entire country,” he said.

In 2013, the Senate approved on third and final reading a bill declaring Chinese New Year a special working holiday during the 15th Congress, during the time of Angara’s father the late senator Edgardo Angara.

The measure, however, was apparently not taken up during the bicameral conference committee, thus, the declaration of Chinese New Year as a holiday remains under presidential proclamation.

Under the younger Angara’s proposal, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Civil Service Commission, in consultation with the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., shall determine and declare the date of Chinese New Year’s Day every year.

Quoting a paper published by the Asian Center UP in 1986, Angara underscored that the recorded history of the Philippines would be incomplete as a basis for understanding contemporary society unless it takes into account the Chinese mestizos’ contributions to our development as a nation.