By Engr. Jay B. Laurino Lawmakers take up HB 9147, or the Hermano Puli Act, during a House committee hearing. (4K Party-list) LUCENA CIT...
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| Lawmakers take up HB 9147, or the Hermano Puli Act, during a House committee hearing. (4K Party-list) |
LUCENA CITY, Quezon — After 17 years of unfinished legislative attempts, 4K Party-list said House Bill No. 9147 has cleared the House Committee on Local Government, pushing a permanent Hermano Puli holiday closer to a chamber vote. The measure would declare November 4 a special non-working holiday throughout Quezon, replacing an annual observance that still depends on presidential discretion.
In Lucban, where Apolinario de la Cruz—better known as Hermano Puli—was born, the proposal would turn a familiar commemoration into a fixed date on the legal calendar. That certainty would let schools, heritage groups, workers and local officials plan ceremonies, lessons and schedules without waiting for Malacañang to act.
The bill also revives a test Congress has repeatedly failed: whether national lawmakers can convert symbolic praise for a local hero into durable public policy. Previous versions cleared the House only to die in the Senate or expire with the adjournment of Congress, forcing Quezon to restart the campaign.
Assistant Minority Leader and 4K Party-list Rep. Iris Marie Montes authored the measure with Quezon Reps. Wilfrido Mark Enverga, Reynante Arrogancia and Keith Micah “Atty. Mike” Tan. They formally filed the “Hermano Puli Act” on May 6, 2026, and the House read it for the first time on May 12 before sending it to the local government panel.
4K announced the committee approval in a social media post but did not disclose the meeting date, vote count or amendments adopted by the panel. The House legislative database still listed HB 9147 as pending with the committee as of August 6 and showed no committee report, leaving the official record behind the political announcement.
The bill’s registered title describes only a province-wide special non-working holiday, even as 4K linked the measure to heritage protection, public education and tourism. Without a published committee substitute or report, readers cannot yet determine whether those broader goals carry mandates, timelines or funding—or remain aspirations.
Montes said the observance could reinforce Quezon’s cultural identity while encouraging the preservation of historical sites and monuments associated with Hermano Puli’s life. For residents, however, preservation means little without agencies, local budgets and enforceable duties capable of keeping markers, archives and commemorative sites from deteriorating.
A special non-working holiday would also change the day’s rules for employees and businesses across the province. Under Department of Labor and Employment rules, employees who do not work generally receive no pay unless company policy or a collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise, while those who work earn an additional 30 percent for their first eight hours.
Quezon has observed Hermano Puli Day through one-year presidential proclamations since at least 1996, a mechanism that recognizes the date without guaranteeing its return. In 2024, the proclamation arrived only four days before November 4; in 2025, it came roughly five weeks ahead, leaving planners at the mercy of shifting executive timetables.
The national government’s 2026 holiday calendar does not list November 4 because the observance is local, not nationwide, and no separate 2026 proclamation had appeared as of August 6. Unless Malacañang acts again or Congress moves faster, Quezon cannot yet treat this year’s commemoration as a legally settled day off.
Hermano Puli was born on July 22, 1815, in Sitio Pandak in Lucban and later served as a lay brother at San Juan de Dios Hospital in Manila. Spanish colonial racial restrictions blocked him from the priesthood, turning a personal act of exclusion into part of the grievance that shaped his religious movement.
He founded the CofradÃa de San José with 18 other former lay brothers, building a brotherhood that defended religious freedom, equality and the social rights denied to native Filipinos. Its growth challenged a colonial order that tightly controlled both worship and power, prompting Spanish authorities to suppress the organization.
Colonial forces defeated the CofradÃa at Alitao in Tayabas on November 1, 1841, after a violent campaign against the movement. Authorities captured Hermano Puli and executed him in Tayabas on November 4, making the proposed holiday the anniversary of his death and the cost of his resistance.
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines records a biographical marker on the Lucban–Luisiana Road and a marker for the Battle of Alitao in Tayabas. Those sites turn the bill’s abstract language about memory into physical places that require maintenance, interpretation and public access.
The legislative campaign began at least as early as July 2009, when Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. filed Senate Bill No. 3351 seeking formal recognition of Hermano Puli Day. House Bill No. 4679 then passed the House in June 2011 and gained Senate support in 2012, but the 15th Congress ended before lawmakers completed the measure.
House Bill No. 8965 won a 171-0 vote in May 2019, only to stall in the Senate Committee on Local Government. House Bill No. 9009 again cleared the House on third reading in March 2021 before being formally transmitted to the Senate, where another Congress ran out without producing a law.
House Bill No. 5831 passed the House on November 21, 2022, and reached the Senate the following day, giving the proposal its strongest recent path to enactment. The Senate record listed it as returned to the House on December 19, 2024, but the proposal still failed to become law before the 19th Congress expired.
A parallel proposal, Senate Bill No. 1878, filed by Sen. Lito Lapid in February 2023, sought annual government-led commemorative events but remained pending in committee. Its stagnation exposes the wider problem: Congress has generated multiple tributes to Hermano Puli, but none has created a lasting statutory obligation.
Montes also attended meetings of the House committees on Agriculture and Food and on Rules during the same workday, according to 4K Party-list. Those panels shape measures far beyond the holiday bill, including food policy and the flow of legislation to the chamber floor, giving her a role in deciding what advances and what stalls.
HB 9147 still needs an official committee report, second- and third-reading approval in the House, Senate passage and the President’s signature before November 4 becomes a permanent special non-working holiday. Until the House publishes the panel’s report, Quezon has an announcement of progress—but no public document showing exactly what lawmakers approved or how soon they will move again.
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