The Absolute Hassle of Renewal
(10:46 AM)
It was supposed to be easy. Everyone said that it would only take 30 minutes. And then you're done.
Two mornings ago, when I tried renewing my NBI Clearance at one of their "satellite offices" in a Makati mall, I had assumed that all I needed to endure was the long line and I would be scot-free, so to speak.
But I got a "hit".
"A hit?" I asked the girl punching the keyboard. I felt like an unpopular website.
"Someone also has your name," she said.
She kept on punching the keyboard and never looked at me. The line was about a hundred people long. She had a long day ahead.
I had no choice. I was avoiding it. I had to go to Manila and visit the famous NBI Carriedo.
"It's easy to find" an office mate said. "Just go down from the LRT station and you're there."
NBI Carriedo is not NBI headquarters, it turns out. It is three whole floors of a building on top of a Greenhills-type market, full of stalls selling beads, step-ins, bags, and pirated VCDs. Welcome to the New Quiapo Shopping Centre (Carriedo Plaza), aka NBI Carriedo.
"Go straight to Step Three and Four," I remember the satellite kiosk girl saying.
I skip Steps One and Two, and headed for Step Three (computer verification), then Four (picture-taking). So far, so good. I skipped Five and gave my forms to the large man sitting behind the Step Six table.
He filed my forms and stamped my receipt.
"Come back at 3:00 PM," he said.
What?
"Come back this afternoon?" I asked. He was already looking away, signaling to someone across the large room. "Can I come back another day?"
He continued to ignore me.
Then he said, "They need you there."
What?
He pointed at me, "You want this guy?" He was talking to someone else.
I was in NBI territory and they want me. I was ready to have a minor panic attack.
"They want me?"
I looked across the room, where the Step Six man was looking. Amidst the crowd, I saw a familiar and smiling face. Thank goodness. An old acquaintance, the NBI husband of a former office mate.
"So, you're the boss here?" I said to my NBI friend. We shook hands.
He said he was just passing by--for some secret NBI stuff, I assume. He asked what my NBI Clearance was for. "Are you going to be a seaman?"
Seaman? There must be joke here somewhere.
"No, I'm applying to New Zealand."
"Really?" he said. "My brother and mother are in New Zealand. They've been there for four years."
After a month of working there, his brother bought a house, then a second-hand Honda Accord. Things he couldn't afford here as an engineer for PLDT. What an amazing coincidence. Proof that people do go and live in New Zealand.
"Do they like it there?"
"They love it there," he stated.
I noticed that he had a gun strapped to his waist.
Two mornings ago, when I tried renewing my NBI Clearance at one of their "satellite offices" in a Makati mall, I had assumed that all I needed to endure was the long line and I would be scot-free, so to speak.
But I got a "hit".
"A hit?" I asked the girl punching the keyboard. I felt like an unpopular website.
"Someone also has your name," she said.
She kept on punching the keyboard and never looked at me. The line was about a hundred people long. She had a long day ahead.
I had no choice. I was avoiding it. I had to go to Manila and visit the famous NBI Carriedo.
"It's easy to find" an office mate said. "Just go down from the LRT station and you're there."
NBI Carriedo is not NBI headquarters, it turns out. It is three whole floors of a building on top of a Greenhills-type market, full of stalls selling beads, step-ins, bags, and pirated VCDs. Welcome to the New Quiapo Shopping Centre (Carriedo Plaza), aka NBI Carriedo.
"Go straight to Step Three and Four," I remember the satellite kiosk girl saying.
I skip Steps One and Two, and headed for Step Three (computer verification), then Four (picture-taking). So far, so good. I skipped Five and gave my forms to the large man sitting behind the Step Six table.
He filed my forms and stamped my receipt.
"Come back at 3:00 PM," he said.
What?
"Come back this afternoon?" I asked. He was already looking away, signaling to someone across the large room. "Can I come back another day?"
He continued to ignore me.
Then he said, "They need you there."
What?
He pointed at me, "You want this guy?" He was talking to someone else.
I was in NBI territory and they want me. I was ready to have a minor panic attack.
"They want me?"
I looked across the room, where the Step Six man was looking. Amidst the crowd, I saw a familiar and smiling face. Thank goodness. An old acquaintance, the NBI husband of a former office mate.
"So, you're the boss here?" I said to my NBI friend. We shook hands.
He said he was just passing by--for some secret NBI stuff, I assume. He asked what my NBI Clearance was for. "Are you going to be a seaman?"
Seaman? There must be joke here somewhere.
"No, I'm applying to New Zealand."
"Really?" he said. "My brother and mother are in New Zealand. They've been there for four years."
After a month of working there, his brother bought a house, then a second-hand Honda Accord. Things he couldn't afford here as an engineer for PLDT. What an amazing coincidence. Proof that people do go and live in New Zealand.
"Do they like it there?"
"They love it there," he stated.
I noticed that he had a gun strapped to his waist.
10 Comments:
"Do they like it there?"
"They love it there," he stated. "He played a Hobbit in Lord of the Rings. Without prosthetics!"
Heh. I went through that too. I went directly to office near the PGH. Used a fixer ie an off duty guy who was directing people at the gate. He wasn't so much as a fixer as a guy who just pointed me to the 'stations.' Nuts. There wasn't even a line when I went there. They kinda imposed. Yes he also had a gun.
Mark: That's the main NBI headquarters. It used to be there but now Carriedo is the epicenter of clearance. I'm surprised that you didn't go to the QC City Hall. That's were I first got mine.
I think I tried. I ended up in Taft. I think the QC guys gave me some BS about clearances for travel are at Taft and the satellite offices (I even inquired at Megamall) were for *job application* clearances. Nuts.
Haven't experienced that yet. Though as much as possible, I try not to register in the govt's radar? Hehe. ;-)
Btw, great-looking blog. Did you do the template yourself?
Banzai: Thanks! Everyone seems to like this clean design. I was inspired (ripoff!) by McSweeney's Internet Tendency. See link below.
i hope new immigrants dont forget their heritage by reinvesting back to their former country.
i have known a few cousins and even close friends who have migrated a long time, who were quick to criticize the philippines. and yet i dont see them lifting a finger to significantly affect real change.
rmacapobre: I totally agree with you. If you have to criticize, then you better be ready to do something about it.
> Bonjour! Vous parlez français! Moi aussi. J'ai etudié à l'Alliance de Manille en 2003. (Tama ba yun?)
salut jesse, oui c'est parfait! ^_^ toutefois, je suis seulement un débuntant. i studied at the multicultural center (in cebu) and then found its cheaper if i just study by myself (and at my own pace). have you taken your french proficiency? bonne chance. max
I have never ever gotten an NBI clearance. Been lucky thus far. Havebeen able to substitute a barangay clearance for my NBI clearance... and the bgy. is so much easier to get to.
NBI Carriedo eh? heheheh.
The law co-exists with piracy.
Acid: Whenever an NBI agent steps on onto the street, he's greeted by rows upon rows of pirated VCDs and DVDs. What does he do? He ignores them, and rightly so. He has better things to do, real criminals to catch. While on the other end of the city, Boss Edu is fuming over the stall owner that got away, clutching a duffle bag full of Winnie the Pooh's Heffalump Movie (promo not yet DVD copy).
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