President Rodrigo Duterte has declared Monday, May 13, as a special non-working holiday throughout the country.

This was contained in Proclamation No. 719, which Duterte signed on May 9.

May 13 was declared as a holiday due to the holding of the national and local elections.

"There is a need to declare Monday, 13 May 2019, a special (non-working) holiday to enable the people to properly exercise their right to vote," the proclamation read.

The Department of Energy earlier proposed to declare also May 14 as a special non-working day to ensure that there would be no power interruptions during the counting of votes. Celerina Monte/DMS