If resolution approved: Long weekend for Mandaue

CEBU, Philippines - Mandaue City will have an even longer long weekend if Malacañang will declare August 30 as a special non-working holiday in the city for the upcoming 47th Charter Day celebration.

The City Council, through a resolution introduced by Councilor Ernie Manatad, is requesting President Rodrigo Duterte to issue a proclamation declaring August 30, 2016, as a special non-working holiday in the city as it celebrates its 47th Charter Day anniversary.

Manatad said the city will have a long weekend if the president will declare it a holiday since August 30 is Tuesday.

August 29, 2016, which falls on a Monday, is a regular holiday as it is National Heroes Day.

Mandaue City became a city on June 21, 1969 by virtue of Republic Act 5519.

But Presidential Proclamation 586 designated August 30, 1969 as the date of the formal organization of the city government.

To be fully prepared for the transition period from municipality to the status of cityhood, a subsequent Presidential Proclamation No. 586 was issued by then president Ferdinand Marcos through Executive Secretary Ernesto M. Maceda on August 6 of the same year.

In August 30, 1969 was designated as the date of the formal organization of the government of the City of Mandaue.

With Presidential Proclamation No. 586, series of 1969 as legal basis to anchor and lean on, the resolution said the city officialdom and the townspeople of Mandaue hold on to its noble tradition in celebrating the Charter Day anniversary on August 30.

"Declaring August 30 as a special non-working holiday in the city will give an ample opportunity for every sector of the community a chance of thanksgiving to the Almighty God and fellowship to our fellowmen and likewise our respect and dedication to our beloved City of Mandaue in whose anniversary of cityhood we dearly commemorate," the resolution read. x (FREEMAN)