Proclamation No. 724




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ Proclamation No. 724, June 13, 1941 ] PROCLAIMING THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1941, LOYALTY DAY AND DECLARING THE AFTERNOON THEREOF A SPECIAL PUBLIC HOLIDAY. Whereas the President of the United States on May 27, 1941, declared and proclaimed that an unlimited national emergency confronted the United States of America, and called upon all loyal citizens “to place the nation's needs first in mind and in action to the end that we may mobilize and have ready for instant defensive use all of the physical powers, all of the moral strength and all the materials and resources” of the United States; Whereas the aim and purpose of this total effort is to defend the principles of liberty and democracy and to preserve the institutions and the way of life which free peoples have established for themselves; Whereas the Filipino people believe in these same principles and cherish these same institutions, which are those for which their forefathers fought and bled, and it is fitting that a day be set aside to be known as Loyalty Day in order that on such a day they may have an opportunity to express and reaffirm their loyalty to the United States of America and their determination to defend those principles and institutions to the last measure of devotion; Now, therefore, I, MANUEL L. QUEZON, President of the Philippines, pursuant to the provisions of section 30 of the Administrative Code, do hereby designate and proclaim Thursday, June 19, 1941, the birthday of Jose Rizal, the greatest Filipino hero who sacrificed his life for our liberty, as Loyalty Day, and declare the afternoon thereof a special public holiday during which all the people of the Philippines through appropriate ceremonies may express and reaffirm their loyalty to the United States of America as well as their loyalty to the Philippines and to the principles and institutions for which both Americans and Filipinos alike are willing to sacrifice and lay down their lives. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Commonwealth of the Philippines to be affixed.1aшphi1 Done at the City of Manila, this thirteenth day of June, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty-one, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the sixth. MANUEL L. QUEZON President of the Philippines By the President: JORGE B. VARGAS Secretary to the President The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation