Conserving fuel

As a political buzzword, “rightsizing” admits the government bureaucracy is bloated and that the present government is in the mood for cutbacks.

“Rightsizing” also readily admits government coffers aren’t in the pink of health, that freely spending tax money is living on borrowed time, fatal in the end.

Trimming government, however, is like physical exercise. The more one thinks or talks about it, the less the first warm-up stretches gets done.

Beneficial results of a “rightsized” government we won’t see anytime soon, in short.

Yet, government certainly just can’t give up the ghost. It can’t afford waiting for things to calm down a bit while grasping for air.

Government, therefore, is in need of quick strategic massages on its vital organs to even catch its breath from, for instance, high fuel prices.

Searching for quick therapies to high fuel prices, we needn’t go so far as “rightsizing,” in fact. Government only needs to revive the old idea of “energy conservation.”

Luckily for this government, it has the right point man for that old idea: Energy Secretary Rafael Perpetuo “Popo” Lotilla.

Popo Lotilla hasn’t yet indicated whether or not he still favors energy conservation — he had only been officially

named Energy boss last Saturday — which he and Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo crafted against another oil crisis in another time.

But government

“Such flexi-work for government workers is workable since civil service law prescribes only 40 hours of work in a five-day workweek, at eight hours a day.

cutting down energy costs through a national policy of energy conservation is worth considering.

It’s also going to be fun, too, watching government fat cats squirm under such a policy.

As a news website lately reminds us, in that time of Ms. Arroyo, her government “prohibited the use of government vehicles on Sundays, legal holidays, or outside regular office hours.”

“Government officials were also barred from using state-owned vehicles outside authorized routes, and a ticket trip would have to be secured and displayed on the windshield — rules included in an administrative order that Arroyo issued in August 2005, as part of the government-wide energy conservation scheme.”

So much for the bureaucrats. But can this government also have the political will to impose on fun-loving Congress fuel conservation measures? I hope so.

Imagine the prospect of a senator, obsessed with his gas-guzzling Cadillac Escalade, shamed into getting on a utilitarian ride to get his fat ass to the Senate?

Or, much better, seeing the parking lots of the shameless Lower House emptied of SUV and other luxury V-8 rides of solons during session days?

Don’t ever believe the lie government fuel vouchers aren’t being used on those power-tripping gas-guzzlers sporting “wangs-wangs” on our roads. At any rate, unpopular Ms. Arroyo then also drastically had government offices shut down air conditioners for three hours a day on workdays. That might be too much, but who knows?

She, however, also ordered the then novel idea of a four-day workweek.

Nowadays, ever since the pandemic upended so many things, a four-day workweek isn’t just a proposal for safer workplaces but is also a policy response to higher fuel prices.

As it is, the Civil Service Commission (CSC), after finding out the 10-hour working day of a four-day workweek too demanding, recommends that government adopt four-day flexi-work arrangements.

CSC has already issued guidelines for seven types of government flexiwork arrangements, which took effect last 15 June.

Following CSC’s advice, some government agencies will implement starting 1 August combinations of a four-day worksite workweek with a one-day work-from-home setup.

Good for these heads of agencies taking the initiative. Other bureaucratic bums, however, need a good kick up their asses.

Anyway, such flexi-work for government workers is workable since civil service law prescribes only 40 hours of work in a five-day workweek, at eight hours a day.

In contrast, the private sector is in dire need of persuasive arguments, particularly on work-from-home schemes, for them to get around its legally mandated 48-hour workweek of an eight-hour working day for six days.

Creative persuasion is crucial since businessmen are worried they can’t push employees to work 12 hours a day just to meet the 48-hour workweek in four days.

At any rate, energy conservation measures should work and are now easy to do in government.

And, more importantly, government and its workers having a weekly one-day worth of savings from energy and fuel costs is desirable. Let’s go for it.

“Government cutting down energy costs through a national policy of energy conservation is worth considering.