Filed
First Reading
Referred to the Committee on Local Government
Approved on 2nd ReadingNow
Parliament Bill No. 192
ApprovedCabinet measureAn Act Governing the Observance of Regular and Special Holidays in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Amending for the Purpose Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act No. 17, Otherwise Known as an Act Recognizing Muslim Historical and Religious Events and All Existing Muslim Holidays in the ARMM and for Other Purposes
Filed
First Reading
Referred to the Committee on Local Government
Approved on 2nd ReadingNow
Passed third reading. This measure has cleared Parliament.
What this measure does
This sets which days the Bangsamoro stops for, and it amends the ARMM-era statute that governed them — Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act No. 17 of the old regional government.
It names 4 regular non-working holidays: Bangsamoro Foundation Day on 21 January, Sheik Karimul Makhdum Day on 7 November, Eid'l Fit'r on Shawwal 1, and Eid'l Adha on Dhul Hijjah 10. And 3 special holidays: the commemoration of the Jabidah on 18 March, the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro on 27 March, and Battle of Bayang Day on 2 May.
Coverage is broad and deliberately so. The holidays bind all private and public offices, private corporations and establishments, government-owned and controlled corporations, private and public schools and other institutions operating in the region — and every office of the Bangsamoro Government located outside its own territory.
Because the Islamic dates move, Section 6 routes them through the Bangsamoro Mufti, who recommends to the Chief Minister the actual dates on which any Hijri-calendar holiday falls, the 2 Eids included. Special holidays need a proclamation from the Chief Minister, which must state whether the day is working or non-working, and Parliament may endorse a historical, religious or other significant event to the Chief Minister for proclamation by passing a resolution.
Why it was proposed
Section 2 sets 3 aims side by side and the tension between them is the whole design: to recognise holidays that preserve and celebrate the history, tradition and cultural heritage of the Bangsamoro and the other peoples of the region; to uphold the rights and well-being of workers; and to promote the vibrance and competitiveness of the regional economy.
The legal necessity is the ARMM statute underneath. Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act No. 17 recognised Muslim historical and religious events for a government that no longer exists, and the region had not replaced it.
Who it affects
- Every employer and worker in the region, public and private, and every school.
- Bangsamoro government offices located outside the region, which observe the same calendar.
- Companies operating across the regional boundary, which must run 2 holiday calendars.
- The Bangsamoro Mufti, who fixes the dates of the Hijri-calendar holidays each year.
- Parliament, which gains a route — by resolution — to propose a special holiday.
- The Chief Minister, who proclaims special holidays and decides whether each is working or non-working.
Who would implement it
- Office of the Chief Minister — proclamation of regional and local special holidays and their working or non-working character
- The Bangsamoro Mufti — recommending the actual dates of holidays falling on the Hijri calendar
- The Bangsamoro Parliament — endorsing events for proclamation by resolution
Funding
No appropriation. No appropriation. The bill sets a calendar; the cost falls on employers as lost working days and on offices as commemorative activity.
What changes if it becomes law
- The region replaces an ARMM-era holiday statute with its own.
- Four regular non-working holidays and 3 special holidays are named in law.
- Every institution in the region, and every Bangsamoro office outside it, observes the same calendar.
- The dates of Islamic holidays are fixed by the Mufti's recommendation rather than left to practice.
Raised during deliberations
No published record of the debate on this measure. Parliament’s journals cover sittings up to March 2023 only, and no committee report on it has been published.
What to notice
One day was promoted, and it is the one that carries the most weight. In this bill the commemoration of the Jabidah on 18 March is a special holiday — a day needing a proclamation, which the Chief Minister may declare working or non-working. In BAA 39 it is a regular non-working holiday, renamed the Day of Shuhada. The 1968 killing of Moro recruits on Corregidor is conventionally treated as the beginning of the modern Bangsamoro movement, and the difference between commemorating it at the Chief Minister's discretion and stopping the region for it every year is not a drafting detail.
One day went the other way. Sheik Karimul Makhdum Day on 7 November is a regular non-working holiday here — Makhdum being the 14th-century missionary credited with bringing Islam to Sulu — and it does not appear among the enacted act's non-working days at all.
The enacted act also built a category this bill does not have. BAA 39 separates special *working* holidays from special non-working ones, and puts the region's battles and treaties in the working column: Bud Daho, Bayang, Shariff Kabunsuan, the Comprehensive Agreement, and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the 1976 Tripoli Agreement. They are commemorated with funded activities and nobody gets the day off. Read against Section 2's third aim — the vibrance and competitiveness of the regional economy — the sorting is legible: religious observance and the founding stop the region, history is marked while it keeps working.
Two things the act added that this bill leaves out are practical and worth naming. BAA 39 requires the Chief Minister to publish the following year's whole calendar by 31 December, which matters when half the dates move with the moon and payroll has to be run against them. And it states that pending a Bangsamoro labour code, the holiday pay rules of the national Labor Code apply in the private sector — the question this bill creates and does not answer, since declaring a non-working holiday without saying who pays for it leaves every employer to guess.
One change of instrument: this bill amends Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act No. 17; the enacted act repeals it.
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