Posts Tagged ‘philippines’

Just to be clear, I am not an employee of NSO nor any public office. I will/am writing base on my experience.

I wanna tell you a story to go about the process. Last June 2008, I ordered an authenticated birth certificate online through eCensus. It could process everything you need from NSO and deliver it to your preferred address. TIP: If you are in the Philippines, choose to pay through bank, because even if they accept credit card, the charging would be different. There is also another service by Teleserv, but I haven’t tried this one yet.

Yes, ordering online is a bit expensive, but it is worth it. I got my order on date expected. I will qoute the exact explanation of this from FAQs of eCensus site:

Processing of paid Copy Issuance requests takes about three (3) working days after receipt of payment and nine (9) working days for Certificate of No Marriage Record (CENOMAR or Singleness) requests. Delivery will take two (2) to six (6) working days for destinations within the Philippines and six (6) to eight (8) weeks for destinations outside the Philippines.

When I receive my order, I discovered that my son’s birth certificate was not updated in which it should have been becuase it has been processed December 0f 2007 as I was told by the person who processed it. Since, I wanted things done, I immediately processed it myself and it only took me 4 hours to go to the office of the registry and requested for an update on the birth certificate, then I was informed to have it stamped on NSO and it is considered authenticated. So, I did all that and got the updated and authenticated birth certificate of my son. All that only took me 4 hours, though it could have been much less if I know where to go on the processing of these things, government offices is not organized and people could get lost.

So there, I have it stamped because it needs 6 months for me to have a colored authenticated copy of the birth certificate. 

Now, May 2009 and more than 6 month had passed and we are going out of the country, and a family friend advised me to have an authenticated copy of the birth certificate of my children.

Yesterday, I went to the NSO office early. It was 7:30 am when I arrived there, thinking that the office will open at 8 am. I thought I was early enough, but when I saw the number of people already there, I knew, I won’t have a “smooth sailing” in processing this birth certificate. The “snake line” is already zig zagging like crazy, and to know the exact number, I got 2327. Imagine that! Thinking I was early, 7:30 am and already more than 2 thousand people were already there before me.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW IN GOING AT NSO OFFICE:

• It is a given that there’s a lot of people base on the story I just told, so it would be better if you won’t bring a child with you, because it would just burden them and you in the process.
• If you are a senior citizen, though I suggest you shouldn’t go there, it’s actually advantageous for you. All you need to do is have your senior citizen ID and go on all the processes like a boss. You don’t need to fall in line like regular people, you could just present your ID on every officer in charge in every process and they would surely give you the way.
• Though I mentioned having a child would be such a burden, some officers are considerate and let the parents who brought their children along with them cut in the line. – MY OPINION: Hell, I have a child too and just because I wasn’t stupid enough to put them in stressful situation  by bringing them with me, I am in additional suffering? If I could have known that bringing a child would be advantageous in cutting into lines, I could have brought my 2 cute ones. BUT anyway, I wouldn’t torture them with some other things in there. I can’t bear to see my children perspire because of being in a crowded place. SO NO, I’d rather have that moment squeeze all the liquid within me than have my children suffer. It was such an UNFAIR situation, but I didn’t voice out. I just smiled, because I just arrived and I am feeling okay at that time.
• Beware of line crossers. Some people would pretend to just insert in the line. Here are the examples: An officer is facing the lady, Ma’am please look for the end of the line, you are not being fair to those who have sacrifice of being early and had been standing in the line for too long.” The lady pretended as if she didn’t hear the officer. The officer then hold the ladies arm and said, “Ma’am, didn’t you hear me? I said, look for the end of the line. Thank You!” The lady then panicked and searched for the end of the line. Another lady, not far from where it happened heard the officer and got a better excuse, she said “Oh, where is that person I was following, I lost him.” Obviously, she’s lying because all of us in line were perspiring like hell and she’s fresh like a new comer fresh. I didn’t voice out as well, this is still just the first step, so I keep all the complaints to myself and decided to just blog about it. So this is what I am doing now.

Okay, back to the processing. Step 1: is getting the number and a form to fill out. I already have that one and the next step is this:

Just check out the picture, see the dirt on the lower left side? It looks like a bee house and it has been there for quite some time. So imagine how many times they clean that place, or do they ever clean that place?

The third step is the payment, and to tell you from the time I was there, I waited 5 hours to be able to finish the process for that day. YES for that day. I thought wrong, I couldn’t get the birth certificate in a day, I need to be back on the 21st, which is tomorrow to get it. 

Another question that is yet to be answered: Is the birth certificate updated? Stay tuned

So, lesson learned. It is better to process things online, than go through the hell the I have been while processing it on the office of NSO. The devil would definitely get on with you in there. Praise God, I am blessed enough to not be fully consumed by the devil there.

God Bless. I’ll update you when I get the birth certificate.

This is what we look like most of the time. Sit in front of the laptop, play or surf the net with a very slow connection from Smart Bro Plugit.

Little to my knowledge that the informations I have submitted at MoneySense magazine was posted in this months issue. I am so proud that I have been given such recognition. Thanks to my friend Glady who posted an article that lead me to buy the said magazine. Well Glady is so proud as well, because Bacolod is the top 1 and all informations written there are all hers. While, Iloilo is on the top 5 and it was Marcos from Explore Iloilo and I who combined forces to share how proud we are of the land in where we grew up. To tell you, Glady is from Iloilo too, she just moved to Bacolod 4 years ago.

All I could say about things happening now: It PAYS to be a BLOGGER!