President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared next Friday, April 21 a regular holiday throughout the Philippines in observance of Eid’l Fitr or the Feast of Ramadan, a Muslim holiday.
The proclamation, according to Marcos, will “bring the religious and cultural significance of Eid’l Fitr to the fore of national consciousness, and to allow the entire Filipino nation to join their Muslim brothers and sisters in peace and harmony in the observance and celebration of [the holiday].”
In 2002, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law Republic Act No. 9177 which amended the Revised Administrative Code of 1987 to include Eid’l Fitr in the list of national holidays.
According to the same law, the approximate date of Islamic holidays may be determined “in accordance with the Islamic calendar or the lunar calendar, or upon Islamic astronomical calculations, whichever is possible or convenient.”
Muslim Filipinos comprise about six percent of the country’s population, based on data from the 2020 census.