The Work Schedule of President Duterte Jibes with the Current Global Business Trend
Posted on Monday, 30 May 2016
The Work Schedule of President Duterte
Jibes with the Current Global Business Trend
By Apolinario Villalobos
If the new Philippine president, Rody
Duterte chooses to work from 1:00PM (1300H) to 12:00 (1200H) noon of the
following day, I personally view it as a wise decision as it jibes with the
current global business trend. In the Philippines as in other countries, the
following business entities operate for 24 hours or at the latest in the
evening up to midnight: call centers, airlines, shipping lines, bus lines, land
transport services, casinos, restaurants and bars, colleges and universities,
vocational schools, business districts (Baclaran and Divisoria in Manila), and
all kinds of convenient stores.
Since many years ago, there was a call for
the rescheduling of the traditional working hours of 8:00AM-5:00PM to 10:00 AM
up to evening, to spread the onrush of commuters and motorists as one way of
easing the daytime traffic. Only very few establishments heeded the call.
Understandably, their foremost reason is economic as extending the work hours
of their employees beyond 5 PM would entail overtime, hence, extra expense.
Also, some provisions of the provisions in the Labor Code will have to be
rewritten as the distinction between the day and evening work schedule has to
be redefined. Most importantly, they were apprehensive for security reason, as
only very few police are on duty out in the field in the evening.
An observed inclination among the operative
agencies such as those responsible for the traffic management and crime
prevention is that they become less and less visible as evening sets. They seem
to be also observing the “daytime schedule” of offices. When questioned about
this, those concerned assert that they maintain “skeleton force”, meaning, reduction
in number on duty. As regards the traffic, this is not reasonable and practical
because the afternoon rush hour normally starts at 5:00 PM and extends as late
as beyond midnight due to the constricted streets in relation to the ever
increasing volume of vehicles on the road. In the case of different crimes,
there is an adage that says, “the mouse will play when the cat is away”,
meaning, the expected commission of crimes is in the evening when the police is
almost not visible and, instead is available only on call.
The chosen schedule of the new president
has a great effect on the operational system of the Philippine National Police
(PNP). It should find ways and means to adjust to such schedule so that they
can be visible and speedily available 24/7. If there is a continued recruitment
of the Philippine National Police to expand its rank, there is no reason why
the evening posting should not match the daytime’s, especially, in areas where
there are nocturnal businesses. Its cooperation is expected in reciprocity to
the importance that the new president is giving to it, some manifestations of
which are the move to decentralize (distributed among regions) some of the
agency’s operations to hasten the release of benefits of its members and the
increase in their pay.
Those who smirk at the new schedule of
Duterte should look beyond the 8-5 traditional work schedule to understand its
advantages. With his work schedule, Duterte will be up and working during the
time when many establishments/business are also in operation and many unusual
activities are expected to happen. Very subtly, he is wisely setting an example
and if those who would really want to cooperate with him are intelligent enough,
they should follow suit. This early, government people should learn to read
between the lines of Duterte statements and be sensitive to what his actions
mean….as he is a man of few words.
By the way, in the olden times, the
beginning and ending of the “day/date” were reckoned with the setting and
rising of the sun. For instance, July 1 began at 6:00 PM when the sun had set
and ended when it had risen again at around 6:00 AM, signaling the occurrence
of a new day/date. Those who observed such were the pagan sun-worshippers. It
is far different from what is observed today, such that the “day/date” starts
at one minute past midnight and ends at the following midnight. Today, such
practice has been integrated with the lunar (moon) adherence that is why the
so-called “lunar calendar” being used today, has days (for the sun), divided among
the months (for the moon). This move was one of the many things that the
Vatican’s early papacy did to attract the pagans to the Catholic fold.
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