Koko: EDSA Day non-holiday should be an issue

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Thursday said that the EDSA People Power Revolution Anniversary's falling on a Sunday next year is no excuse for removing it from the list of holidays in 2024, and that the move may be a "step" towards revising history.

“It’s not that they excluded because it will fall on a Sunday. It was really excluded, which is wrong,” Pimentel said in an ANC interview.

“We should celebrate that peaceful transition from dictatorship to a democracy. We should celebrate that as a nation… We should make this an issue. Being a Sunday is not an excuse not to include it in the list,” he went on.

Last week, Malacañang released the list of regular and special non-working holidays for the year 2024.

The list noticeably does not include February 25, which marks the anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution, the event that ended the decades-long rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., father of current President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

Malacañang said that the commemoration was not included in the list because February 25, 2024 falls on a Sunday.

Pimentel also said that there are still some Filipinos who work on Sundays.

“A Sunday is not a working day for us, for the general population, but it is still a working day for some people. Therefore, even in the compensation of those who are expected to work on Sundays… there will be a different formula to compute their compensation because it is or should be a special non- working day,” he said.

“We should ask the admin, why did you exclude it? Not because it falls on a Sunday, you were really excluding it and we should not exclude that historic moment in Philippine history. We should always remember that,” he went on.

Pimentel, whose late father Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. was a leading critic and opponent of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s regime, said that commemorating the People Power Revolution would remind the Filipino people of the “details, context, and the background” of the event when the Philippines was “able to change our society relatively peacefully.”

Asked if he thinks this is a revisionist history, Pimentel said, “Maybe an attempt or a step number one.”

GMA News Online has reached out to the Palace for comment.

Malacañang said that there would be "minimal socio-economic impact in declaring such day as a special non-working holiday since it coincides with the rest day for most workers/laborers."

It added that the Office of the President "maintains the respect for the commemoration of the EDSA People Power Revolution." — BM, GMA Integrated News