Philippine holidays and long-weekend schedule for 2014 (Proclamation No. 655, s. 2013)

Hunyo 12 by Claude Tayag (1989 Fiestas Serigraph Series)

If things go our way, we have nine long weekends to look forward to in 2014! And several of them would be at least five days! And if you do the math, you can plan for a 12-day vacation next Christmas!

Malacanang issued Proclamation No. 655, s. 2013 declaring the regular holidays, special non-working days, and a special school holiday for 2014. Instead of just giving you the same list of holidays of the Republic of the Philippines for 2014, this will help you read in between the lines with confirmed long-weekends, expected long-weekends and a possible 12-day vacation with one or two leaves:

• January 1 (Wed) - New Year's Day (five-day long weekend from December 28 to January 1)
• January 31 (Fri) - Chinese New Year (three-day long weekend from January 31 to February 2)
• February 25 (Sat) - EDSA Revolution Anniversary (holiday for schools only)
• April 9 (Wed) - Araw ng Kagitingan
• April 17 (Thu) - Holy Thursday
• April 18 (Fri) - Good Friday 
• April 19 (Sat) - Black Saturday (four-day long weekend from April 17 to 20)
• May 1 (Thu) - Labor Day
• June 12 (Thu) - Independence Day
• July 28  (Mon) - Eid'l Fitr (possible three-day long weekend from July 26 to 28)
• August 21 (Thu) - Ninoy Aquino Day
• August 25 (Mon) - National Heroes Day (three-day long weekend from August 23 to 25)
• October 4 (Sat) - Eid'l Adha (possible three-day long weekend if holiday declared on October 3)
• November 1 (Sat) - All Saints Day
• November 30 (Sun) - Bonifacio Day (three-day long weekend from November 30 to December 2)
• December 24 (Wed) - Special Non-Working Day
• December 25 (Thu) - Christmas Day 
• December 26 (Fri) - Special Non-Working Day (five-day long weekend from December 26 to 28; and if you take a leave on December 29, you could have a twelve-day vacation from Ddecember 24 to January 4, 2015)
• December 30 (Tue) - Rizal Day
• December 31 (Wed) - Last Day of the Year (three-day long weekend from December 30 to January 1, 2015 but it could extend to six days until January 4 if January 2, 2015 is declared a Special Non-Working Holiday next year)