The entire Philippines celebrates the National Heroes Day or “Araw ng mga Bayani,” today, August 31, 2015. The Philippine national government already declared August 31 as a Regular Holiday all over the country as indicated in President Aquino’s Proclamation 831, which was released on July last year.
According to Philippine history, the annual National Heroes Day was firsts mandated by Commonwealth Act. 3827 or 1931. Based upon the act, it needs to be celebrated every last Sunday of August.
The celebration continued until the year 2007 when then President Arroyo signed Republic Act 9492 which moved the celebration to the last Monday of August in line with the so-called “holiday economics” program.
The August 31 national holiday of 2015 gave the Filipino students and employees their second three-day weekend this month, the first one came during the Ninoy Aquino Day on August 21, 2015.
Based upon the Philippine history, the last week of August is very significant in the history of the country because it was during this time in 1896 that members of the Katipunan headed by Andres Bonifacio launched an armed revolution against the ruling Spanish colonizers.
It took two years for the Filipinos to gain victory against Spain but their victory was short-lived due to the arrival of the American imperialist who defeated the Spanish in the great battle of Manila Bay wherein the formidable Spanish Armada of Admiral Montojo was defeated by Americans headed by Commodore George Dewey.