Li'l folk complain: bureaucracy inept

Helpless dealing with big bureaucracy, little folk ventilate their woes to the media. They ask for so little, so reasonable, so practical. Take for instance these three e-mails sent to me last week, all self-explanatory:

Bella Ramirez: “I’m the old lady you helped with a PLDT problem years back. This time I hope you can help make easier getting an NBI clearance. My son needed such document for his new job. We know how long the queue snakes in front of the NBI headquarters, on Taft Avenue, Manila. But we learned there are releasing outlets, like at the Robinsons Galleria mall near our home in Quezon City. He was told to fall in line as early as 2 a.m., and wait for the mall to open at 10 a.m. Aghast, he went instead to the QC city hall. Same thing: queue up at 2 a.m. for office opening at 8 a.m. So he did. You can just imagine the long line of young jobseekers, standing for hours or slumping on the ground.

“The sad part was, after all that, my son was not issued a clearance because he has a namesake with a criminal case. He was instructed to return on May 8. I’m sure he will be made to line up again starting 2 a.m.

“Through your column, the NBI might be persuaded to open more releasing outlets, or to streamline its processing. More so since there will be a deluge this summer of fresh college grads looking for jobs.”

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Amanda Sison: “I just came from the AFP Savings and Loan Association Inc. to withdraw the pension for my brother-in-law, who is now a US resident. He is 99 and though not sickly has been restricted by family from too much traveling to cold, rainy San Francisco to draw his pension from the Philippine consulate. So he gave me a special power of attorney to do it for him. The SPA is valid for six months, so he has to travel to SFO for the required personal appearance to renew it. There was no problem before, but lately due to old age his signature varies. Most senior citizens experience this: I do, at age 78. Being a financial institution, the AFPSLAI has not only specimen signatures but also fingerprints of military pensioners on file. Should not the signature suffice as proof of identity? After all, they say, my brother-in-law’s prints tally with their file.

“I had a busy morning today at the finance department getting a six-month extension. Still the AFPSLAI refused to release the pension because the signatures differ. Yet only last February I was able to use the same set of papers to withdraw, no questions asked. The teller then had asked me for verification papers and approval from the same office I dealt with today.

“I don’t know what good this letter would do. I just want the AFPSLAI to know: rules can be modified for the sake of veterans. You will grow old too, and may encounter the same lack of compassion.”

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Helen Ramos: “This is about the deplorable state of the NAIA-1, worsened by inconveniences to which users are subjected. I experienced this when I took a taxi to the arrival area.

“I went to meet my husband who was arriving from Vienna at 4 p.m. I hailed the cab from Makati around 2:15 p.m. to beat the traffic. At the inspection area of the NAIA entrance, I told the cabbie to take me to the arrival deck. He said he is not allowed to enter the arrival area because only the airport taxis were authorized to do so. Arriving passengers prefer to take ordinary taxis because airport taxis cost more, he said. To prevent competition, the ordinary taxis are barred from entering the arrival area. He dropped me off at the departure level.

“As you know, this airport (probably the only one in the world) bars non-passengers from entering the terminal, where I could have taken an elevator to the arrival level. It’s not as if I want to go as far as the check-in or immigration counters. It might be useful for NAIA managers to visit airports in, say, Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand to check out how a functional terminal runs. I had to go down the stairs to the departure area outside the building, close to where OFWs and their relatives were waiting — under the heat of the sun! At the bottom of the stairs, there were fences to keep loiterers from the road between the arrival area and the departure area. The security guard said I could not go through that road, reserved only for arriving passengers. He pointed me down another road, under the hot sun, to the gate of the departure terminal, crossing the parking lot behind the arrival area. What a way to treat a senior citizen like me!

“Finally, I got to the arrival area. It was hot as an oven. I went up hoping it was air-conditioned, only to find out the ACs were weak, and the seats filthy. Thank God I did not have need to use the toilet; that would have been another disgusting surprise.

“Why do we bother to invite tourists when we can’t even fix our airports?”

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Why do Chinese vessels and poachers intrude in Philippine seas? Who are to blame for election fraud, the NBN-ZTE rip-off, and NAIA-3 construction anomalies? These and other scams in the past decade are detailed in Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government. Published by Anvil, this compilation of my selected Gotcha columns is available at most National Bookstore and Powerbooks branches.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).

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