Too many holidays an investors’ disincentive — ECOP

Too many holidays an investors’ disincentive — ECOP | Daily Tribune

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) warns that the Philippines currently enjoys too many holidays, something the group says serves to reduce the competitiveness of the country and its attractiveness to foreign investors.

In a recent interview with DZXL News, ECOP president Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. said the Philippines observes an inordinately high number of holidays and that there is no need to add more to the list.

He noted that holiday celebrations in the country continue to grow, from religious and political observations to national and local holidays as well as ethnic holidays and holidays due to calamities.

These holidays add up, on top of vacation and sick leaves provided by companies to their workforce.

Uncompetitive country

The effect of too many holidays is that they make the country uncompetitive and unattractive to investors, stressed Ortiz-Luis.

“It’s a disincentive dun sa mga namumuhunan, lalo pa nga kung foreigner yung namumuhunan dito at nakikita nila yung number of holidays na madalas nadadagdagan pa ng mga special holidays,” said Ortiz-Luis in a mix of English and Filipino.

(“It’s a disincentive to capitalists, particularly foreign capitalists who see the number of holidays and how this is being expanded by the addition of special holidays.”)

Too expensive

“We’re becoming too expensive,” he further stated, noting that this has an adverse impact particularly on workers on no-work-no pay arrangement and on the services sector such as the transportation industry.

Added Ortiz-Luis, “Masarap pakinggan yung holiday-holiday, wala kang trabaho, pero napakarami na nating holidays. Huwag na nating dagdadagan.”

(“It’s nice to hear that it’s another holiday and you have no work, but there are just too many. Let’s not add to it.”)

To trim the number of these events, Ortiz-Luis suggests looking into the possibility of combining some of them, commemorating special occasions without turning them into non-working days, and localizing the celebrations to certain areas or regions where the event holds a special meaning.