I've just recently started on my first "office" job since i finished school. Six months of travelling made me realize two things: i need money and i need to work, so now im really here-- in the real world.
I had the opportunity to choose to work at a government agency where I will learn a thing or two about survival and building connections. I currently work at the Bureau of Immigration, and my cousin suggested that I share my stories-- the serious and the funny ones to everyone. and so I am here, telling you my story.
have fun.
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“Baka pwede naman po itong pakiusapan?”
“PRESS AKO! Isulat mo pangalan mo at pagmali ka, anong ang gagawin
ko sayo?”
I’ve only been working in the Bureau of Immigration for a
month now, and I have heard so many people saying either like the former—people
who try to cut corners because they forgot to do one or two of the protocols in
collecting items like the i-card or visa, or they’re the latter—the ones who
use their work or name or a name that has “power” to scare us.
Yes, I know its frustrating most of the time, but accusing
and assuming that one’s bureau is corrupt and unable to do their jobs right is
an accusation I cannot accept. So for the sake of all hard-working and veteran
employees of the bureau and to all present and future citizens of the
Philippines, let me defend and explain to you our side.
First of all, it does not give justice when I say that we
are hard-working and respectful civil servants, especially to those who have
been working in the office for quite some time now. We work from 7 o’clock in
the morning until 5:30 PM, we are not allowed to leave the office for lunch,
and we do not have breaks, just to accommodate the demanding clients who think
that we want to keep their visas just to make them suffer a little bit longer.
We acknowledge the fact that you have a lot of fees, that
you wait outside where its hot and unpleasant, that lines are long, and that
you think we are not doing anything. But implementing visas are not like baking
cookies. We do not just mix, bake, and after 10 minutes it’s all done. We do
not just show your papers and stamp your visa. We ask for documents, verify
them and follow the procedure. But most of all, we do not cut corners for
anybody.
It has been three years since PNoy promised to clean the
system. The corrupt government as we all say, must be put right. But most of
the people who live in this country, Filipino or not, do not realize that
“cleaning the system” does not mean miraculously creating this perfect country
from worst airport to number one in a year. Cleaning the system means having a
plan—reviewing, applying, and evaluating each department as to how to make it
cleaner and better—and knowing if that plan is more effective or better is
another topic. And you know what that means? It means it takes time.
Three years after, and a month of talking with my peers and
reading all the new memorandums of the current commissioner, I can only say one
thing: this bureau means business. No loitering policy and lunch breaks for all
employees to process all customers throughout the day, proper attire and
decorum in the agency for clients must be applied, because quite frankly this
is no mall, and strict compliance of receiving and releasing of data to
minimize the risk of losing important documents and giving them away to
unauthorized agents and/or persons. Both of which try to solve the problem of
not being able to accommodate all present clients in the main office and
minimizing the risk of false identification.
And yet still, a lot of people complain about the process,
the money, and the time they have consumed to get their visas approved. But you
see a lot of people line up in the U.S. Embassy from morning until the
afternoon, paying so much money, not complaining, waiting for hours and
sometimes even skipping their meals just get their visas approved. So why can’t
we have that same compliance in our own agency?
And, is this fair?
What you should know though is that we accommodate hundreds
of people a day, implement about 500 visas a week, and approve more than a
thousand applications a month. SO YOU
CANNOT BE A SPECIAL CASE JUST BECAUSE.
Do not forge your relative’s signature. Do not attempt to
pay us money or your charm to fasten the process. Read everything, bring the
requirements, and ask nicely. And if you’re still not happy, you can always
recommend, complain and leave comments on our website or directly to the
commissioner’s office.
But then that got me thinking. How about us, where do we
complain about people who verbally abuse us all day? Where do we complain about
people who want to cut corners and not follow protocol? Where can we complain
about the attitude that you give us because you do not want to wait a little
bit longer?
These are questions that I would like you to answer when you
one day go to the office and ask for the implementation of your visa, because
really, DAANG MATUWID means following protocol, following procedure, following
rules. And if you can’t handle that, then maybe you should ask yourself one
last thing-- who then is corrupt, you, who want to get what you
want or us, who just follow protocol?
***And if you’re
wondering about what happened to the two people who commented that, the former
did not get the item that she wanted, and the latter, after yelling and
humiliating my colleague, was in the end, wrong and did not come back.
