Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Malilong: Three hours just to get an exit visa By Frank Malilong The Other Side
A CEBUANA, who teaches abroad, came home to spend Easter holiday with her family and friends. Her short vacation was, however, marred by a frustrating experience while she was trying to process her exit visa at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) office.
She related her experience in the following letter that she wrote the day before she left to re-join the army of Filipino overseas contract workers, our so-called modern day heroes:
“Remember that the week of Easter has only three working days, so you have to set aside Monday of the week for the most important of your holiday: processing your exit pass at the POEA office.
“I arrived at the Cebu office at around 8:45 in the morning and the room was already full of BM’s (Balik Manggagawa) like me. I was lucky to find a seat right after I had completed the required form that I had to put in a tray together with my passport.
“According to the guidelines posted on the wall, I have to wait for my name to be called, and I did. I waited patiently for an hour and during this time I was able to reconfirm my flight by phone, arranged my doctor’s appointment for the following day and gave instructions to the house help on what to cook for dinner. I didn’t waste my time.
“I was called and told to go to the One Stop Shop for Medical Insurance Payment. Since I just paid months before, I was not required to pay again. Incidentally, why should we be required to secure a local health insurance when we already have an international health insurance?
“Anyway, I went back to the OWWA office to pay P1,250, after which I returned to the POEA where I had to put in the tray my passport with the additional papers from the two offices that I earlier visited. Again I waited for my name to be called.
“This time, it took an hour and a half for that to happen and this time I couldn’t find a seat. During my long wait, I kept asking myself why we had to go through all these. Aren’t we supposed to be the new heroes of this country? Isn’t it that without our dollar remittances, the Philippines would be in much worse economic mess than what it is in now?
“It is enough that we have to suffer the loneliness of working abroad. The government has to do something to at least make our brief stay in the country enjoyable by simplifying bureaucratic processes.”
I agree with the letter-sender. Making them wait for three hours just to get an exit visa is no way to treat our heroes. Our overseas workers are the POEA’s reason for being. Couldn’t the office show a little more gratitude to them by making its transactions less stressful?
Also in my mail was a note from retired Development Bank of the Philippines lawyer Esperanza Valenzona thanking me for “taking up the cudgels” for her and other GSIS pensioners.
Nang Sising said she planned to see the local GSIS manager to activate her ATM account because the GSIS failed to do so. “I hope the manager will not require me to go back again and again for I do not have the energy to do so,” the 90-year-old retiree wrote.
She ended her letter by expressing hope that the GSIS “would make the necessary arrangements to facilitate the receipt of pensions by aging pensioners like me.” Paging my friend, GSIS President Winston Garcia.
