Rain, rain, Guo away

Last week, I had to get my birth certificate authenticated by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). I need it as a travel document for work purposes.

It raised my eyebrows because it took me two days to get a single printed copy of a piece of paper that could have been printed in a matter of minutes. Business and work can wait, yes, but time lost falling in line cannot be retrieved.

The process goes like this. You need to get an appointment with the PSA using a QR code which can be acquired through their office in Quezon City, which involves getting in line. Following the appointed schedule, you need to return the next day for your appointment, which took more than five hours due to the long queue of people also getting their documents. There was even a uniformed policeman who got pissed off after he used his lunch hour to get a specific document but the special lane for government workers was not open and he was told to fall in line like everyone else.

Two contrasting ideas from the experience: 1) Why are we back to the prehistoric age of releasing documents? Aren’t we supposed to follow the Anti-Red Tape Authority’s (ARTA) vision of a “digitalized Philippine bureaucracy for an effective, efficient and inclusive service delivery?”

The delivery of government services should not take too long and the ease of doing business should be observed at all times. Providing fast and digitalized transactions by curbing red tape and easing the burden on the people should be the norm.

2) On the other hand, the stricter PSA process could mean they are not letting their guard down when it comes to issuing birth certificates after they were roasted in the Senate over the fake birth certificate issued to dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo. If this is the case, then they are forgiven. At least they are now implementing measures to not only protect the people but also the PSA from being used by people to fake their identities.

I suppose the issue of Alice Guo had a ripple effect on all government agencies to verify all documents. This is a good development — complacency has no place in any government office.

The hot topic this week is the arrest of Alice Guo in Indonesia. The government has yet to release the details of how she will be flown back to the country. Guo was cited in contempt and ordered arrested by the Senate on 13 July after she failed to attend the public hearings on POGO issues.

Later, her “sister” Shiela, after her own arrest, disclosed they used boats and planes to get to where they hid in Indonesia. Quite an adventure, right?

While the series of hearings had turned into a Netflix episode with unlimited plot twists and climaxes, we need to be reminded that there are other issues that need our attention, like the need for a flood control program during this typhoon season. Everyone should be involved in the effort to clean up the environment we live in and to be a part of the tree planting efforts to help minimize the gravity of floods during the rainy season.

Why are we back to the prehistoric age of releasing documents? Aren’t we supposed to follow the Anti-Red Tape Authority’s vision of a ‘digitalized Philippine bureaucracy?’

Speaking of tree planting, since September is Maritime Awareness Month, the government agencies in the maritime sector are hand in hand working to promote maritime activities that will benefit everyone.

For the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), educational tours at ports nationwide have started, to be followed by coastal cleanups and tree planting in port communities.

More than 12 million trees and mangroves have been planted by the PPA as its contribution to the climate change issue in compliance with the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to integrate reforestation and disaster mitigation projects.

From 2020 up to July this year, the PPA under the leadership of GM Jay Santiago planted 12,259,894 trees as certified by the DENR. Way to go! Maybe one day there will be no more floods, who knows? Your guess is a good as mine, but let’s hope for the best.

For now, as the saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.” The country has so many things going on at the moment — from the non-stop rain to Alice Guo — but I’m pretty sure the skies will clear up soon; it cannot rain all year long.

We are in the same boat, and everyone is affected in some way, so let me just sing: “Rain, rain, Guo away.”