Philippine President Joseph Ejercito Estrada signed into law a significant bill for Seventh-day Adventists on December 8. The “Professional Regulation Commission Modernization Bill” ensures that Philippine professional licensure examinations will only be scheduled on weekdays and not on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

Many Seventh-day Adventists in the Philippines had been denied professional licensure in the past because the examinations were scheduled on Saturdays, the Adventists’ Sabbath day. “Because Adventists chose not to attend classes or examinations on their Sabbath, many professional people had to wait years to get licensed,” says Jemima Orillosa, a native of the Philippines who currently works in Secretariat at the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. “A person applying for their Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license, for instance, might be able to take one part of the exam and then wait long years to find other parts of the exam scheduled for a weekday,” she adds.

Congressman Harlin C. Abayon (First District, Northern Samar), who worked on this bill, intentionally sought chairmanship of the Civil Service Committee in the Philippine House of Representatives so that he could help members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Together with Pastor Bienvenido Tejano, Philippine Ambassador to Papua New Guinea and religious liberty director for the church’s North Philippine region, Abayon worked with the country’s legislators for the bill to be passed first in the House of Representatives and later in the Senate.

Earlier in his term, President Estrada had issued an administrative order to the Professional Regulation Commission that examinations should not be done on Saturdays, but Pastor Tejano and Congressman Abayon wanted the assurance of seeing the intention put into law to ensure that Sabbath examinations be avoided in the future.

After signing the bill, President Estrada said, “I have fulfilled my promise.”

Among the witnesses to the signing of the bill were Congressman Abayon and his wife, Ambassador Tejano, Violeto F. Bocala, president of the Southern Asia-Pacific region of the Adventist Church, Howard F. Faigao, associate publishing director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide, Alberto C. Gulfan, Jr., president of the Central Philippine Union Mission; Pastor Hiskia I. Missah, youth director and director of religious liberty in the Southern Asia-Pacific region, and Nestor D. Dayson, president of the North Philippine Union Mission.