The President does not have a general power to declare holidays

There are 3 categories of holidays under Act 601.

1. Public Holiday listed in Schedule 1 – this includes all the religious holidays and national days – Republic and independence.

2. Additional holidays. These are holidays that the President may declare.

3. Substituted holidays- as the name suggests substituting one holiday with another day. President is given the power to do this.

My view:

a. The President has no power in declaring a category 1 holidays. Category 1 holidays are statutory holidays determined expressly by legislation. Even the publication by the interior ministry on category 1 holidays is a needless process.

b. The President has power to declare additional holidays outside category 1 holidays. Any other day aside category 1 holidays.

c. Substituted holidays. The President only has the power to substitute holidays with another day.

We have not implemented this law effectively as we do to all our laws.

We must fully operationalize Section 3 of Act 601 by substituting ALL holidays which fall on working days from Monday -Thursday be moved to FRIDAYS.

ALL category 1 holidays which fall on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) should not be substituted and must be celebrated and observed as such.

This is an easy way to increase productivity and increase revenue.

We don’t need the Chinese to implement this!