「日刊まにら新聞」ウェブ

The government is proposing to implement daylight saving time as part of its effort to conserve energy amid the high power cost in the Philippines.

In a Palace briefing on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the creation of an energy conservation plan was discussed during the sectoral meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos to address the high energy cost in the country.

"We show the importance of addressing energy, because one of the complaints against the Philippines is the high energy cost. So we discussed that and we said we should have an energy conservation plan on the demand side. Because we cannot influence the supply side if the price of gasoline in the world market is high we cannot influence that. But we can start conserving," he said.

"One of the proposals is for the Department of Energy to change their office working time from 7am to 4pm. So, this is the daylight saving time, when they will start to work at sunrise, so it will be much earlier. And then, I think they will work from home every Friday," he added.

Diokno said the implementation of daylight saving time may be adopted by other government agencies if it's experiment succeeds.

"So, that is one way, if the experiment of DOE succeeds, it may be adapted by other agencies," he said.

"We cannot mandate the office hours for the private but mostly government agencies. The private sector may also follow," he added.

Diokno noted that the government may also require the maximum temperature of 25 (degrees celsius).

"During the energy crisis, I went to China. The entire China (they use) 25. You will be able to save a lot, if it is 25.," he said.

The finance secretary said addressing the high energy cost in the country is also important to address the inflation and improve its economy.

"It cannot be solved easily. But ang forecast is, by maybe October this year it (inflation) will go down to 4 percent. And then by 2024, the average inflation will be 3.1, okay, that’s the forecast," said Diokno. Robina Asido/DMS