Because of the economic crunch, more people are staying closer to or at home instead of going out to resorts or the provinces during long weekends as projected by the government's "holiday economics" policy.
The two long successive weekends this month are due to the holiday economics policy instituted by Malacañang: the commemoration of the death of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. on Monday moved from Thursday (August 21) and National Heroes' Day (usually the last Monday of August).
President Arroyo coined the term in 2001 to encourage domestic tourism. Until recently it seemed to work.
Now, with the price of nearly everything going up, many Filipinos say long weekends merely translate to more spending.
That's why Rosadel Jarmin and her friends found a more economical way of spending the holiday.
Instead of going to the mall, they went to the Rizal Park in Manila.
“Bukod sa walang gastos, maganda pa at nature ang nakikita,” Jarmin said.
Guia Casillan and her family, on the other hand, just stayed home.
Aside from spending time with their newborn nephew, she and her cousins spent the day in front of the videoke.
“Mas matipid, mas masaya kasi nagba-bonding pa kami ng family,” Casillan said.
Because of the economic crunch, Filipinos are forced to cut back on certain costs.
Some would rather save money for special occasions such as Christmas than to go out and spend unnecessarily, simply because it's a holiday. Joey Villarama, ABS-CBN News