Philippine Holidays 2026 and 2027: A Guide for Companies With Offshore Staff

By Neej Parikh, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Exordiom. Updated October 2026.

TL;DR

The Philippines has 10 regular holidays a year, two Islamic regular holidays (Eid'l Fitr and Eid'l Adha), and eight special non-working days, all set annually by presidential proclamation. The 2026 calendar comes from Proclamation No. 1006 and the 2027 calendar from Proclamation No. 1427, signed on September 8, 2026. If your offshore team works a regular holiday, Philippine labor rules require 200% of the daily rate; a special non-working day pays 130%. Exordiom treats every person it hires as part of your in-house team, so each client decides whether their Philippines staff follow the Philippine calendar, the US calendar, or a combination of both.

What are the Philippine holidays in 2026?

Exordiom recruits and employs full-time staff in the Philippines and India for US companies, and the first question new clients ask us is which days their Philippines team will be offline. These are the 2026 dates under Proclamation No. 1006, with the day of the week in Manila.

Regular holidays, 2026

Special non-working days, 2026

February 25, the EDSA People Power Anniversary, was a special working day in 2026: offices stayed open and it paid as a normal day. Counting only Monday to Friday, the 2026 calendar takes 18 weekdays out of a Philippines-based team's year.

What are the Philippine holidays in 2027?

Proclamation No. 1427 sets the 2027 calendar. The Eid dates are proclaimed separately each year once the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos confirms them against the Islamic calendar, so treat them as provisional until that proclamation is out.

Regular holidays, 2027

Special non-working days, 2027

February 25, 2027 (Thursday) is again a special working day. Six of the 2027 holidays land on a Saturday, so a Monday to Friday team loses fewer weekdays than in 2026: 12 before the two Eid dates are added.

Which Philippine holidays matter most for a US team?

Three stretches account for most of the lost coverage, and they are worth putting on your calendar now.

• Holy Week. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Black Saturday run back to back, so most of your team is offline from Thursday to Sunday. In 2027 that is March 25 to 28.
• All Saints' and All Souls' Days. Known locally as Undas, this is when families travel to their home provinces. In 2026 it creates a three-day weekend ending Monday, November 2, and in 2027 it takes out a Monday and Tuesday.
• The December run. Five of the seven weekdays between December 24, 2026 and January 1, 2027 are holidays. It is also when Philippine employers must pay the legally required 13th month pay, no later than December 24, and the season people plan their year around. If you need support coverage over the US holidays, agree on it in October, not December.

What do you pay when your Philippines team works a holiday?

Philippine labor rules set the floor, and the Department of Labor and Employment restates them every year in a labor advisory. For an employee working their normal eight hours:

Two details catch US companies off guard:

• Overtime stacks on top. Hours beyond eight on a holiday earn an extra 30% of the holiday hourly rate.
• Night shift differential applies to most US-hours teams. Philippine law adds 10% for every hour worked between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Manila time. A 9-to-5 Eastern shift runs roughly 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. in Manila, so nearly every hour qualifies, holiday or not. On a holiday, the premiums attach to the hours that fall on the Manila calendar date, so a shift that crosses midnight is split across two pay rates.

As the employer of record, Exordiom runs Philippine payroll, so these premiums are calculated and paid correctly without your finance team having to learn the rules. For the full picture on shifts, see our guide to Philippines and US time zone overlap.

Should offshore staff follow Philippine holidays or US holidays?

There is no single right answer, which is why we let each client decide. Only two days, New Year's Day and Christmas Day, appear on both calendars, so in 2026 the two calendars disagree on 25 working days. Your choice decides who is online on each of them.

How Exordiom handles holidays for its clients

Our position is simple: treat the people Exordiom hires for you as in-house, not as a vendor's staff. These are skilled professionals we recruit specifically for your team. The closer they sit to how your company actually operates, including its rhythms, its rituals, and its days off, the better the alignment, the better the output, and the longer they stay. We have written about why that parity matters in what quality parity with an in-house team really takes and in how to keep a Philippines team past year one.

That is why holidays are the client's call, not ours. You choose whether your Philippines team maps to US holidays, Philippine holidays, or a combination, and we set up the calendar and payroll to match.

What we see in practice:

• Many clients go the extra mile. When their Philippines team works a Philippine holiday, they pay double for it, including special days where the legal minimum is 130%, as a show of good faith.
• Most of our people take that option. Given the choice, they usually work the Philippine holiday and bank the extra pay.
• Nobody is locked in. You can change the approach as your team grows, and we update payroll accordingly.

The bottom line: you get full flexibility, and your team gets treated like the rest of your company.

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FAQ

How many holidays does the Philippines have in 2027? Proclamation No. 1427 declares 10 regular holidays, eight special non-working days, and one special working day for 2027. Eid'l Fitr and Eid'l Adha are added as regular holidays by a separate proclamation once their dates are confirmed, which brings the regular total to 12.

What is the difference between a regular holiday and a special non-working day in the Philippines? A regular holiday is paid even if the employee does not work, and pays 200% if they do. A special non-working day follows "no work, no pay" unless company policy says otherwise, and pays 130% if worked.

Do offshore employees in the Philippines get US holidays off? Only if their employer agrees to it. Philippine law does not recognize US holidays, so it comes down to the arrangement. With Exordiom, each client chooses US holidays, Philippine holidays, or a combination.

Is Christmas Eve a holiday in the Philippines? Yes. December 24 is a special non-working day in both 2026 and 2027, and Christmas Day on December 25 is a regular holiday.

Does night shift differential apply to Philippines staff working US hours? Yes. Work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Manila time earns an extra 10%, and most US business hours fall inside that window. It applies on holidays too, on top of the holiday rate.

When are the 2027 Eid holidays in the Philippines? They are not fixed yet. The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos recommends the dates, and a separate proclamation sets them, usually a few weeks ahead. Expect Eid'l Fitr around March and Eid'l Adha around May.

The decision rule

If your Philippines team faces your US customers in real time, start with a combination calendar: keep Holy Week, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day off, work the rest at the holiday rate, and add Thanksgiving. If the work is async, the Philippine calendar is simpler and costs less. Either way, decide it before the December run, and put it in writing.

Sources: Proclamation No. 1006 (2026 holidays), Proclamation No. 1427 (2027 holidays), and the Department of Labor and Employment's holiday pay advisories, as reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer for 2026 and for 2027.

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