THE House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading a bill declaring every national election as a nationwide regular non-working holiday to incentivize the electorate and encourage them to exercise their democratic right to vote.
With an overwhelming 198 votes, lawmakers approved House Bill (HB) No. 8187 which provides that a “national election” shall include activities such as “plebiscite, referendum, people’s initiative, recall election, special election, regional elections, other processes of voting of a similar nature which are national in scope.”
The bill seeks to amend Section 26, Chapter 7, Book I of Executive Order No. 292, otherwise known as “The Administrative Code of 1987,” as amended.
There are currently 12 regular holidays and two nationwide special days under the Administrative Code.
“With this proposed legislation, we hope to get the maximum participation of our voters in the national elections which is one of the most important activities that they should do as Filipinos. The right to suffrage is guaranteed by our Constitution and we want to value and protect this right by making sure that voters would no longer worry about missing work,” said Speaker Martin Romualdez.
“This bill will also benefit our kababayans (countrymen) who work in Metro Manila or other places and need to file for leaves just so they can travel back to their provinces. We want to make sure that we assist them by declaring national elections as a regular holiday so they can exercise their right to vote hassle free,” he added,
The authors of the bill are Reps. JC Abalos, Maximo Dalog Jr., Elipidio Barzaga Jr., Ma. Victoria Co-Pilar, Keith Micah D.L. Tan, and France Castro.
