When is Charter Day?
August 6th of every year is a special non-working public holiday for the Province of Cebu including its highly urbanized cities of Cebu and Mandaue and its component cities of Lapulapu, Danao and Toledo.
Cebu is a province of the Philippines, in the country’s Central Visayas region, comprising Cebu Island and more than 150 smaller surrounding islands and islets.
On August 31st 2000, during the administration of former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, former Congressman Pablo Garcia amended Republic Act (RA) 8952, under RA 7698, to declare August 6th of every year as a local holiday for the entire island of Cebu to commemorate the province’s founding anniversary.
Cebuanos have been celebrating August 6th as their province’s foundation day since 1993 – years before the law was enacted. At that time, Cebu’s provincial council stressed that King Philip II’s appointment of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi as governor of Cebu on August 6, 1569 “marked the foundation, although loosely, of a province of Cebu.”
Cebu was the first European settlement established by the Spanish Cortes in the Philippines.
