Marcos on Undas 2025: Every act of remembrance carries a greater meaning

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Saturday joined the nation in paying respects to departed loved ones in observance of Undas, or All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

In his message, Marcos said that Filipinos dedicate the first two days of November to “a solemn pause to pray, reflect, and recall the many people whose deeds and presence continue to be felt long after their passing—beginning with All Saints' Day, when we venerate the noteworthy exemplars of the Christian faith, followed by All Souls' Day, when we offer our deep respects to our dearly departed.”

“During these twin feasts, we proclaim that those who came before us do not vanish into nothingness but continue to live on in our hearts and minds,” the President said.

Many Filipinos trooped to cemeteries for the annual tradition of paying respects to the deceased loved for All Saints’ Day. 

LIVE UPDATES: Undas 2025 (All Saints' Day), Nov. 1, 2025

November 1 was earlier declared a special non-working day to allow Filipinos to head to their hometowns and observe the annual tradition with their families. 

“Every act of remembrance carries a greater meaning: to pray is to enter communion with our saints and deceased loved ones, to light a candle is to bind our conscience with their legacy, and to lay flowers is to pledge to uphold their mission,” Marcos said.

The country’s chief executive said that, “even in the transience of our own mortality, we have the capacity to make a lasting impact in our communities and those around us.”

Marcos said the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day occasions “remind us of the paradise that awaits in the hereafter-where poverty, pain, and suffering no longer hold purchase, and where the Lord Almighty resides in splendor among His people.”

“Until then, our duty is to fashion a foretaste of its splendor here on earth. 

Let the Philippines strive to be that lamp upon a hill where people carry the memory of the dead as strength, the witness of the saints as guide, and the hope of a permanent dwelling as purpose until time itself bows before eternity,” he said.

“I wish everyone a solemn and meaningful observance,” the President said. —VAL, GMA Integrated News