Identification Blues
It’s the 21st of February, 2008. That’s 11 days away from our Pre-board examination. The Pre-board examination lasts two days, and it’s supposed to let us know wat it’s like taking the actual board examination.
When the semester was just starting, the reviewer told us that the best time to take the board exam is during the first time an examinee takes the board exam. I know I want to take the exam just once only, because I’ve already wasted enough time going back to school for something that I don’t really want.Taking the exam will be just to close this chapter of my life. A professional license isn’t bad at all. So even if I don’t practice, the license is gonna give me proper identification, which is apparently dificult to get in this country.
My birth certificate had 4 errors on it, and I always spend more than twice just to get a SECPA copy from the NSO. I have authenticated copies of my COLB, but government agencies require the SECPA copy. I wasn’t actually aware of having to go get the errors corrected until I was graduating in 2005. The registrar in charge said that if I didn’t get it fixed soon, she can’t register me for graduation and then all the five years I spent in college during the time would all go to waste or under a different name.
I called up my parents, explained it to them, and believe it or not, they were just like, “Oh, just have her put down the right spelling of your name.” I felt like banging my head on the wall. If only it were that easy… The government agencies were dumb during the 80′s, putting incompetent people in their positions and always screwing up everybody’s names, just because they don’t ask how the names are spelled. And now they’re pulling this “We’re strict” act and have everybody filing for affidavits to correct their names. Just imagine how much the government is making out of how many people in a day and the srvice still sucks. One hundred and twenty-five pesos a copy and it takes them an entire day or two to give the copy. And if the certificate is something like mine that has corrections on it, I’d have to write to the main office in Manila because they don’t update their database and I’d have to wait approximately a month before I get the certificate. And to think I even had to send it through carrier mail like LBC, FedEx, or DHL just to “speed” things up. The pouch I sent by the way is prepaid, so I’m supposed to get the requested copies a day after they send it back.
250 pesos for two copies + 220 pesos for the mailing + 36 pesos for the service fee at the Post Office = 506 pesos
I need the certificate so I can file for the board exam and another original SECPA copy for a passport. This country’s development super slow. The government’s got enough resources, they just say that they don’t, Filipinos are smart enough to do anything, but the talents are left undiscovered.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on my country. I love the Philippines, except the people running it. The Philippines has so many good and smart people in it, but apparently the officials are all so much better and smarter than the ordinary people that they spend all day arguing and end up putting everything else on hold.
