Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and Christmas Day. Holidays are often moved to
the closest Friday or Monday to their original date
(see box opposite), so that people in the cities can
use the long weekend to get back to the provinces
to spend a few days with their families. This moving
of public holidays is done on an ad hoc basis and
is announced in the press just a few weeks -
sometimes only a few days - beforehand.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
January 1
New Year's Day
February 25
Anniversary of the EDSA
Revolution
March/April
(variable) Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday
April 9
Bataan Day
May 1
Labor Day
June 12
Independence Day
June/July
(19 July in 2015, 8 July in 2016
and 27 June in 2017) Eid ul Fitr, the end
of Ramadan
August 21
Ninoy Aquino Day
Last Monday in August
National
Heroes' Day
November 1
All Saints' Day (see box, p.37)
December 25
Christmas Day; the
following day is also a holiday
December 30
Rizal Day, in honour of
José Rizal (see p.439)
Phones
If you want to use a
mobile phone
bought abroad
in the Philippines, it will need to be GSM/Triband
and to have global roaming activated. For local
calls it will probably work out cheaper to buy a local
SIM card
, available at dozens of mobile-phone
outlets in malls and convenience stores, for any of
the country's four major mobile
networks
: Smart
Communications, the best bet for iPhones (
W
smart
.com.ph), Globe Telecom (
W
globe.com.ph), Talk 'N
Tex t (
W
talkntext.com.ph) and Sun Cellular (
W
sun
cellular.com.ph). Local SIMs start at just P40 (Globe
and Smart) and you can top up your credit for P100
to P500. Note that your phone must be “unlocked”
to use a foreign SIM card (this can usually be done
at local electronics shops, for a fee).
Rates
depend on
which prepaid package you opt for - most come
with unlimited domestic calls and texts to a certain
limit. International call charges start at US$0.40 per
minute, rising by US$0.04 every six seconds.
Basic mobiles in the Philippines are inexpensive,
starting at less than P3000, so it can be worth
buying one if you plan to stay for any length of
time. Unless you have a permanent address in the
country for home billing, you'll be funding your
calls with prepaid cards.
Businesses
generally keep the same hours, with
some also open on Saturday from 9am until noon.
Banks
are open Monday to Friday from 9am to
3pm and do not close for lunch, except for some of
the smallest branches in rural areas.
Shops
in major
malls open daily from 10am until 8pm or 9pm, later
during the Christmas rush or “Midnight Madness”
sales; the latter take place every two weeks on the
first Friday after each payday.
Churches
are almost
always open most of the day for worshippers and
tourists alike. Typically, the first Mass of the day is at
around 6am, the last at 6pm or 7pm.
Government o
ces and private businesses close
on
public holidays
, though shops and most
restaurants remain open except on Good Friday
USEFUL NUMBERS AND CODES
T
117
Emergencies
T
108
International operator
T
109
Assistance with long-distance
domestic calls
T
114
or
T
187
Nationwide directory
assistance
CALLING ABROAD FROM THE PHILIPPINES
Dial
T
00, then the relevant country code, area or city code and then the number. Note that
the initial zero is omitted from the area code when dialling to the UK, Ireland, Australia and
New Zealand from abroad.
Australia
61
New Zealand
64
Republic of Ireland
353
South Africa
27
UK
44
USA and Canada
1
CALLING THE PHILIPPINES FROM ABROAD
Dial your international access code, then
63
for the Philippines, then the number.
