Date Issued: August 2015
NATIONAL HEROES DAY
The celebration of National Heroes Day was first signed into law through Act No. 3827 of the Philippine Legislature on October 28, 1931. The Act declared the last Sunday of August of every year an official national holiday.
President Corazon C. Aquino’s Administrative Code of 1987 adopted this in Book 1, Chapter 7, which provided for a list of regular holidays and nationwide special days, setting National Heroes Day as a regular holiday celebrated on the last Sunday of August. The Administrative Code provides that the list of holidays and special days may be “modified by law, order or proclamation.”
On July 24, 2007, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law Republic Act No. 9492, which amended Book 1, Chapter 7 of the Administrative Code. By virtue of R.A. 9492, the celebration of National Heroes Day thus falls on the last Monday of August.
Our national heroes are often portrayed as a pantheon of distinct and powerful personalities (see the banner above) who have managed to get their names published in our history books by virtue of their words or actions. But National Heroes Day specifies no hero; the law that put into practice the celebration does not name a single one. And this lack of specifics offers an opportunity to celebrate the bravery of not one, not a few, but all Filipino heroes who have braved death or persecution for home, for nation, for justice, for freedom.
SOURCE: http://malacanang.gov.ph/8720-national-heroes-day/
