Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Panama's Independence Day May Finally Move To November 26

Sources: Critica en Linea, Prensa.com, and Panama public holidays. In our post of November 17, we reported how the movement, begun in early August, to restore the moving of some mid-week fixed-date public holidays to the following Monday had been approved in commission, and passed a first reading on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies.

Yesterday, the law passed a second reading, and tourism organizations have begun to petition the President so that a Presidential decree be issued immediately, if the law is passed tomorrow or Friday.

One of the reasons for the renewed urgency is that the bill, as it now stands, would not move some mid-week fixed-date public holidays to the following Monday, but rather would use Emiliani's rule which would mean that the upcoming November 28 public holiday would be moved to next Monday, November 26, and not December 3, as was to be the case, until yesterday.