December 18 2014 declared a holiday in Iloilo – Graciano Lopez Jaena Day
The 158th birth anniversary of Filipino writer and revolutionary propagandist Graciano Lopez-Jaena will be commemorated this December 18, Thursday.
The day is a special non-working holiday in Iloilo province and its capital Iloilo City. This is in accordance to Republic Act (RA) 6155. This law came into effect during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos. The full text of RA 6155 can be read here.
Three decades later in 2001, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed a bill proclaiming Lopez-Jaena’s birth anniversary as a special public working holiday throughout the country.
This bill eventually became RA 9070, and was signed into law by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001. Read the final version of RA 9070 in this link.
Born in 1856 in Jaro, Iloilo, Lopez-Jaena is part of the triumvirate that initiated the Propaganda Movement, alongside national hero Jose Rizal and journalist Marcelo H. Del Pilar.
Also known for his unmatched rhetorical skill, Lopez-Jaena served as the first editor-in-chief of La Solidaridad, which is the official newspaper of the reform movement.
Lopez-Jaena’s most famous work is Fray Botod, a story about an obese Spanish friar who lived in power and luxury despite coming to the Philippines as a poor man. The Ilonggo propagandist succumbed to tuberculosis in 1896, the same year Del Pilar and Rizal also died.
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it says on the proclamation working holiday, but on your report you said non-working?
Non-working day in Iloilo, working holiday in the rest of the country.