No No No to Con Con con

It’s a con, is what it is. The constitutional convention that the House of Representatives is cooking up is for real, and is absolutely dangerous. That con con would amend the Constitution, ostensibly to revise certain provisions that have a negative e ect on the country s economic growth.

A new constitution will promise to deliver miraculous growth to the Philippines, proponents say.

It will not. It will be more of the same, if not worse.

President Bongbong Marcos said last week that charter change was not a priority of his regime. He was lying, of course. The House will bulldoze the bill that would call for cha-cha, and it will be with the full blessings of Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin and Yes Man #1.

As House minority leader Edcel Lagman said, cha-cha has the quiet approval of Marcos. “Covert assent” was the phrase he used, which explains why the charter change train is moving as fast as the Maharlika Investment Fund of late last year.

The only question is the method with which the basic law of the land will be amended.

It can be through a con con, or it can be Congress acting as constituent assembly. It can even be a hybrid body, where some representatives are elected and some appointed, as suggested by a retired Supreme Court chief justice.

Whatever the method, it’s a 100 percent sure thing that the political dynasties will be well represented. In fact, they will very likely form the majority of the men and women who would change a perfectly good constitution.

The worst thing is that it is the incumbent dynasties – most of whom are beholden in some way or form to the Marcos/ Romualdez gang, or clan if you prefer.

For starters, they will dispense with term limits. More than this, they ill find a ay to e tend the ter s of all current elected govern ent officials, eginning ith the president

The country has experienced how awful a bad president can a ect the country hin rap strada or odrigo uterte Now imagine the six-year term of an elected president being e tended indefinitely hin loria acapagal-Arroyo and her nine painful years as chief executive. Yes, her extended ter as a u e, ut it caused such da age to the ody politic that its e ects are felt to this day he reinstituted holesale corruption from the top, as a certain Ferdinand Marcos Sr. had done previously.

Those who would revise the constitution may institute some changes that could conceivably do some good for the people, but mostly the new provisions will be self-serving. The convention or assembly’s sole purpose will be to entrench themselves in power.

The BBM Constitution – what else should it be called, the Maharlika charter? -- will allow foreign ownership of media, which is as useless as useless a provision as it can get.

With most Filipinos able to access the internet, they can tune in to any news organization anywhere in the world.

It may even be argued that foreign media is already operating in the Philippines, through social media like YouTube, or through strea ing services li e et i , , or isney

In fact, Filipinos should welcome foreign media operating in the country. None could do a worst job than the 100 percent ilipino-o ned roadcast travesty that is A ner Manny Villar may have all the money in the world, but he had zero expertise in operating a media organization, resulting in a mega failure as his station could not even last six months without its live shows shutting down.

But I digress.

The cha cha choo choo train is moving full speed ahead, and it seems only a handful of senators stand in the way of a law being passed in the very near future which would fund a con con.

The two minority senators Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros may not stand alone in putting up a roadblock to the evil deed planned by the puppets at the House of Representatives.

It is within the realm of the possible that enough senators will see through the Marcos regime’s hidden plan to alter the charter and guarantee that Marcoses and Romualdezes will hold top government positions for many, many decades to come.

(Continue on page 27) he airfare covering our return ight to the was saddled by penalty fees and related charges after several rebookings. he for er P - pri eti e anchor readily came to the aid of a journalist in distress! e t thing I no , I as ith olly on alo Rolly, in whose Broadcasters’ media Forum Ms. Villaluna occasionally guested, called her up and he let her know of my plight.

Arare bird is hard to find ut not in the Philippine Airlines here I had a first hand experience with one.

I ta e y hat o to Ms. Cielo Villaluna, the spokesperson of PAL.

She’s a rara avis. With her in the PAL organization, our country s ag carrier airline is lucky and in good hands.

While in the Philippines during a recent visit, y ife and I ere a eneficiary of s illaluna’s good-heartedness.

In my calculation, with the penalty and rebooking fees slapped on the unused portions of our roundtrip tickets, it would have been cheaper buying new return tickets for each of us.

But Ms. Cielo heard about our predicament and she responded.

I than y old friend olly a ay on alo, former National Press Club of the Philippines prexy, for bringing my case up to Ms. Cielo.

Huge thanks to Ms. Cielo Villaluna and her colleagues she worked with - Chiqui de la Merced, Asst. Sales and Services manager for Metro anila and u on, and her sta assistant arren Togado- to make the airfare price bearable.

Bearable is, in fact, an understatement as we were, in my estimate, actually charged a miniscule of what Customer Service previously came up with.

It was like getting a slap on the wrist for a violation.

Earlier, I had a series of email engagements with PAL customer service but the back and forth was fruitless.

I was about to give up and began scouring the e for udget fares o ered y other airlines I found several pretty good ones, incredibly lowpriced, but the big BUT is you got to hibernate at stopover airports for 48 hours or more.

After a few minutes, he passed the phone to me and, to say the least, I was impressed how fast PAL’s beautiful frontline lady, in her mellow and sympathetic voice, grappled with my problem and assessed it while explaining how airfares go up that she said are ofttimes occasioned by events beyond the airline’s control, aside from penalty fees, as in my case.

I really appreciate s illaluna s e orts, along with Chiqui and Karren, that resulted in saving a lot from our wallet, or what’s left of it.

Actually, the wallet was near depletion because of our extended vacation that made our budget stretched out. My wife who was always on guard, expense-wise, was on her toes.

Is a 4-day-work-week beneficial, acceptable in the US?

This morning, while taking my breakfast, I watched CNN Morning News report about the success of a shortened work week days (4-day-workweek) in the United Kingdom (UK) for employees but still getting the same or better pay and that most of them were less stressed and had better work-life balance.

Wow, that’s great… less work, more money!

Researchers said that a 4-day work week trial in the UK, yielded an overwhelming success!

Will this work in the US? Will US companies adopt the concept?

My co-workers loved the idea because they said they will have ore ti e for the fa ily ne said, he can get a partti e o to aug ent his inco e thers, ust say, they have more freedom to do things they want to do. So, I think it’s a welcome idea here in the US for employees. How about for the companies? Well, if it means more production and more income for the companies, why not?

According to the Associated Press, “A trial of a four-day workweek in Britain, billed as the world’s largest, has found that an overwhelming majority of the 61 companies that participated fro une to ece er ill eep going ith the shorter hours and that most employees were less stressed and had better work-life balance.”

With the scheme, they worked less, they got more! This as according to findings

“We feel really encouraged by the results, which showed the many ways companies were turning the four-day week fro a drea into a realistic policy, ith ultiple enefits, said avid rayne, research associate at niversity of Cabridge, who helped lead the team conducting employee interviews for the trial. “We think there is a lot here that ought to motivate other companies and industries to give it a try.”

The university’s team worked with researchers from Boston College; Autonomy, a research organization focused on the future of or and the ay ee lo al nonprofit community to see how the companies from industries spanning ar eting to finance to nonprofits and their , orers would respond to reduced work hours while pay stayed the same.

The results are very encouraging. “Not surprisingly, employees reported enefits, ith percent less urned out, percent less stressed and percent ore satisfied ith their job than before the trial.” f the or ers, the report said, percent said it as easier to balance work and responsibilities at home, while percent reported increased satisfaction ith their lives Fatigue was down, people were sleeping more and mental health i proved, the findings sho

Platten’s Fish and Chips Restaurant in the English seaside town of Wells-Next-The Sea found this out. This was also the result especially in the hospitality industry where people often work seven days a week.

“Everyone is focused, everyone knows what they’re doing, everyone is refreshed,” said Kirsty Wainwright, general manager of the restaurant about a three-hour drive northeast of London. “What it means is that they are coming into work with a better frame of mind and passing that on to obviously the clients and the public that are coming here for their meals. They’re getting a greater service because the team are more engaged.” hey constantly co unicated ith e ployees to find hat or ed est, hich as having the sta split into t o groups, allowing one group to work two days on, and other to have t o days o , she said

The concept lets people work, have a day to do chores li e cleaning the house and then have t o days o , seeing your friends, seeing your fa ily, doing so e stu yourself, Wainwright said. “And that’s what this is all about is actually just working to live and not living to work.”

For companies that rolled out the shorter work hours… revenue asn t a ected, according to the findings say In fact, “revenue even grew 1.4 percent over the course of the trial for co panies that provided ade uate data eighted for the size of the business while