Filipinos all over the country will be enjoying a three-day weekend later this August as the nation celebrates the annual National Heroes Day (Pambansang Araw ng mga Bayani). This year, the day falls on August 25, Monday. It was August 26 last year.
It is a regular holiday as listed in Proclamation 655, which President Benigno Aquino III signed September of last year. Read The Filipino Scribe‘s report about Proclamation 655 in this link.
This year’s Araw ng mga Bayani comes just four days after the nation marks the 31st anniversary of the assassination of the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., which for its part is a special non-working holiday.
As noted in our National Heroes Day post last year, the last week of August is significant in Philippine history because it is during this time period when Andres Bonifacio and Katipunan, the revolutionary group that he founded, began the armed struggle for liberation against the Spanish colonial government.
Historian Milagros Guerrero for her part went as far as arguing that Katipunan during the aforementioned time period effectively became the first Filipino national government.
“Filipinos should recognize Bonifacio not only as the founder of the Katipunan and leader of the revolution of 1896, but as the first Filipino president: the father of the nation and founder of our democracy,” she wrote back in 2003.