Jul 09 - Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

Members of the Philippine House of the Representatives on Tuesday proposed to cut government offices' weekly working days to four and to limit operating hours of malls to slash electricity and fuel consumption.

Marcelino R. Teodoro urged fellow lawmakers to adopt House Resolution No. 629, which he authored, imposing a four-day workweek scheme to conserve power in government institutions.

According to Teodoro, the scheme will require government employees to render service and work up to ten hours a day for a period of four days in a week. "Employees would still be working for the same 40-hours per week, the work duration per week required of those in government service," Teodoro said on a press release posted on the House website.

Reylina Nicolas, a member of the House committee on energy, said the four-day workweek scheme deserves "serious study" as oil companies plan to raise the prices of petroleum products by at least ten pesos (0.2 U.S. dollar) per liter next month.

"Since we don't have control over the soaring pump prices, the practicable thing to do is to conserve electricity and fuel," Nicolas said. "I believe the four-day workweek proposal covering government offices and agencies will drastically cut on our use of electricity and fuel, aside from saving us a lot of money on bills. "

The lawmaker explained that should the four-day workweek be adopted in other government offices, those offices performing protective and medical services should be exempted from the work scheme to assure continuous service to the public.

Other lawmakers also suggest private corporations follow suit. "We can save more if the private sector contributes its share at saving electricity and fuel," said lawmaker Adam Relson Jala.

He also proposed that private establishments to limit the operating hours of malls as part of its contribution to the energy saving program. "The public should understand that everyone has a responsibility to help the nation during these hard times."

The proposal of four-day work-week resurfaced as oil prices hit 145 U.S. dollars a barrel in the international market. The Philippines buys more than 90 percent of its fuel consumption demands from abroad. On last Saturday, domestic pump prices were raised for the 18th time in the year, with gasoline prices hitting 62 pesos (1.33 U.S. dollar) a liter.

According to previous reports, the Philippines has about 2.7 million government employees and more than 80,000 government vehicles.

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