A SOMNOLENT SUMMER: How sweet it is to do nothing — and to rest afterwards. So goes an old Spanish proverb.

So goes also, it seems, the lifestyle in the government service — and the rest of the somnolent countryside in summer. In fact, looking beyond government, we?re tempted to say that the Philippine calendar is actually an endless cycle of siesta and fiesta.

So that when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo adopted through an administrative order a proposal of Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon for a four-day work week for offices under the Executive Department, it was booed before it was understood.

It was as though her Administrative Order 32 implementing the Gordon scheme for the summer months of April and May has just institutionalized sloth and inefficiency in government.

But if you examine AO32 more closely, you are likely to agree that it has more merit than our jaundiced eyes see without looking.

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NOT A FOUR-DAY WEEK: It was unfortunate that the summer schedule was described as a four-day work week, which it is not.

The term “four-day” week conjures up images of state workers packing up on Thursday afternoon and padlocking their offices, to come back Monday after a long three-day weekend.

It’s not so. Under AO32, Executive offices will be open five straight days, Monday through Friday, as usual. In fact, business hours that regularly open at 8 a.m. will even be extended until 7 p.m. instead of the usual 5 p.m. closing time.

Personnel covered by AO32 will continue to serve 40 hours a week. The difference is that during the summer months, their 40 hours will be compressed into four days (either Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday), making each day a 10-hour (instead of eight) work schedule that extends to 7 p.m.

The two-hour extension will give the public, especially employees of private offices working till 5 p.m., time to transact business with the government from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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OFFICES DECONGESTED: Agency heads will devise their own schedule and work load distribution so all offices will be manned Monday through Friday until 7 p.m. — and still be able to allow three-day weekends for all their personnel.

There will be fewer staff working each day, but considering how overcrowded government offices are, this should be a welcome development. Overcrowding hampers efficiency, strains facilities, and makes many people irritable and unproductive.

With just the right number working, everybody, including temps and casuals, is at least assured a seat and work desk. The thin air will also get a chance to circulate a bit more.

The Gordon scheme actually falls short of the decongesting that we would want to see in government to streamline services. The truth is that the fat work force could be reduced by more than half without crippling essential services.

(AO32 does not cover police and fire stations, government hospitals, and such agencies performing frontline, security, safety, and emergency services.)

Another positive effect of a staggered 40-hour schedule is the easing of going-home traffic. Personnel of Executive offices will start getting their ride home after 7 p.m. instead of jostling for a peak-hour seat.

Private businesses may also adopt their own summer schedules, but it will not be as easy. They will have to consider more variables, especially the time, habits and preferences of the public they are servicing. If AO32 is properly explained to them, heads of other government offices not covered by the order may want to try their own summer schemes.

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GORDON’S TOURISM ANGLE: AO32 can stand on its own merits without having to use tourism promotion for an excuse. But that tourism angle is understandable since the summer schedule was a brainchild of Gordon, the super salesman of Philippine tourism.

The sales pitch of Gordon has it that with three-day weekends on their hands, personnel of agencies under the Executive Department will now have more time for themselves and their family. He wants tourism to grab a piece of the action.

He said that “the day that is freed up can be used by families to spend time together at home, attend to personal concerns such as health care, children’s needs and housekeeping, devote time to a small personal business that can augment the family’s income or to travel to local destinations.”

“The revitalization of the domestic tourism industry is key to the nation’s economic recovery as it generates not only much-needed revenue but also business and employment opportunities for thousands of Filipinos,” he added.

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IT’S THE ECONOMY: The intention of the tourism secretary is laudable, and we wish him well because we know the salutary effects of travel on the tourist, the hospitality industry, and the national well-being on a macro scale.

However, we are disturbed by the reality that tourism is more of a function of the economy. Workers may have found the time for leisure, but if they don’t have the money for going around with the family this summer, there won’t be much movement.

The more robust economies do not need staggered summer schedules for workers to boost local tourism. The basic requirement is for the industry, with the government backstopping it, to prepare the destinations — and the local tourists simply show up in droves because they can afford it.

We want to see the statistics after the summer break to check if indeed government workers given three-day weekends spent their time, and money, seeing the sights.

Is there a mechanism for keeping track of their movement? If there’s one, or if there’s a reporting system but it’s not that reliable, we will never know what happened.

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WHICH COMES FIRST?: There is a chicken-and-egg view of tourism development. Will entrepreneurs readily spend money — most of it borrowed at high interest — with the promise or expectation of a tourism upsurge?

Suppose they spend for infrastructure but the tourists fail to materialize? On the other hand, suppose the tourists show up in great number, but the rooms and related amenities are not ready because the investors missed their cue?

Is the word of a Dick Gordon enough to prod industry leaders to prepare for the hordes of tourists that he sees on the horizon?

In some countries cashing in heavily on tourism, the private industry is taking an active lead. In the Philippines, however, nothing will happen unless there is rapport between the industry and the government. Together, virtually holding each other’s hand, they must sally forth with confidence that everybody will deliver his end of the deal.

Also, we have to rouse ourselves from the stupor of the siesta-fiesta syndrome that has seen this nation sleeping in the shadows.