RA 10172 and My (Mis)adventures (Part 3: Race against Time )

February --- I talked to my parents about their upcoming summer vacation and they told me that they had planned to spend the first 5-7 days in Davao (dad's hometown) and the other 5-7 days in Misamis Oriental (mom's hometown) . Since I was not really close to my relatives and I did not have any idea where to get the necessary documents, I had decided to file a leave of absence for two days (April 22-23) coinciding the days that they would be spending in Misamis Oriental. I chose Air Philippines (now PalExpress) and paid three thousand pesos for around-trip ticket from Manila to Cagayan de Oro and vice Versa.

April-after thinking that everything was fine, my parents suddenly had changed their schedule! Whoa! It would be a week earlier than what they had planned, to accommodate my younger sister's enrollment. I was a bit disappointed because I had thought that re-booking is not allowed, and it would be difficult (or impossible) to re-schedule someone's leave of absence in our company. Two weeks before the flight, I asked our Head Team Leader if I could re-schedule my LOA and luckily, she said it was okay, on the condition that I would be filing it two weeks before my preferred schedule.

Another good thing that happened was, I talked to a Customer Service Representative of Air Philippines and asked if re-booking was possible, and she said yes, however, only my trip bound to CDO would be allowed. Hence, from April 19th, my flight was re-scheduled to April 17th, 7:30 PM.

April 16, 2013 (Tuesday) around twelve PM---my sister sent me a text message informing me of my need to get a Police Clearance. What the heck! Why hadn't they informed me yesterday so that I could have enough time to process it? My father told me that if I were not able to get the clearance, we could at least mail it to the Civil Registrar's Office. However, I was not convinced because I believed that the petition would never be filed unless the requirements are complete, and he/she would just send me home and would ask me to come back should I complete my requirements.

I already had NBI Clearance that they brought with my other papers along with them, and NBI clearance would be sufficient enough to prove that I did not have any criminal record. I had two places to get my Police Clearance: first was in Makati but according to the website (which I think was outdated) it would take three days before I could get the clearance. The second was in Taguig City where my parents have been living for more than twenty years and where I had spent most of my childhood and teenage days. However, I still need to secure a copy of Barangay Clearance as pre-requisite.

Plus, I still have two hours before I could go home---2 PM. We know that in this country, securing clearances in government offices will take a lot of time. So, I asked my Team Leader if I could work half-day (5 AM-9AM) the next day (coincidentally, the day of my flight) should the time of getting this clearance take longer. However, my TL couldn't give me an assurance that I would be allowed to do this because working half-day would only be allowed if the teacher or his/her immediate family members are sick.

That was literally the so-called “race against time”. I was just so lucky that my friend Chrissy lives in the same Barangay as my parents (I haven't been living with my parents since 2007) and that her house is near the Barangay Hall.

Photo Source

She instructed me how to get there as quickly as possible. I have never been a fan of taxis so I just rode an FX and got off C-5 where I rode a jeepney going to FTI. From there, I rode a tricycle that brought me in front of the Barangay Hall and the driver asked me P120! I really felt that the driver was just taking advantage on me but I did not have enough time for discussion so I gave in. Well, I was happy that the heaven did not go against me at that time because I got my Barangay Clearance only for thirty minutes. I checked the time: 3:30. I still had time to go to Taguig City Hall. I had ran and had walked alternately as fast as I could to reach the tricycle terminal, from Pag-asa Street to 7th Street in GHQ Village and from there, the tricycle driver took me in front of the City Hall, and I paid seventy pesos. I checked the time: four o'clock. I had prayed that I could get the clearance that very same day and my prayers were answered!

My father also told me to bring his Comelec Registration/ Voter's Record, which were not present on the list that my sister had uploaded via Facebook. The problem: my parents' room was locked and I had to ask my sister and her boyfriend to help me unlock the bedroom door. We couldn't open it, hence, we had to loosen one of the slats of its jalousie window. Whew!

And so my journey began on Thursday morning, April 18, 2013. My mom requested my uncle, the remaining single among her siblings, to accompany me to process all the requirements that I needed. In my previous post, I mentioned that a petitioner's health examination, ultrasound report and medical certificate should all be processed in the place where the petition would be filed and since I was born in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, I had to get all those documents not in Manila, but in this place. The clerk had already given the list of other requirements which I hadn't processed yet and when I checked it, the only one missing is the Medical Certificate attesting that I had not undergone sex change or sex transplant, or so I thought.

First stop: Villanueva Lying-in. It was closed on that day, and an outsider informed us that this clinic is opened every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I was really hoping that I could finish getting all the requirements and getting my petition be signed for a day, so I could be with my parents to go home via Super Ferry the next day, so uncle and I had decided to find another clinic or hospital. For the entire story, please click here.

Villanueva Lying-in

At around 3:30 PM, the ultrasound report had been released. My uncle and I went back to the Office of the Municipal Civil Registrar only to find out that the MCR had reported that morning and had gone somewhere and hadn't come back yet. Not only that, the clerk informed me that the Medical Certificate that I had gotten was not sufficient enough; I still had to see the Municipal Health Officer because “Ipapa-certify pa yang medical certificate mo kay Doktora”. She also asked for a copy of my dad's birth certificate which was not on the list that she had given to my mom! She asked me to get the copy from the NSO in Cagayan de Oro to which I replied “Why didn't you just inform us right away? We had already gone to CDO this morning to get an ultrasound report!” She re-examined the list and asked me to get a copy of my parents' Baptismal Certificates in lieu of their birth certificates.

Thus, my uncle and I went to Villanueva Health Center

Municipal Health Center, Villanueva

so we could “pa-certify kay Doktora” (as the clerk said) my medical certificate. The doctor had just put her signature and license number on my medical certificate which I thought was enough. To my surprise, that was not the one required! The clerk had shown me a copy of that certificate which was owned by another petitioner. Out of annoyance, I said, “OMG! May pattern naman pala kayo, bakit hindi n'yo nalang ako binigyan agad. Nagkita na kami ni Doktora eh!” I guess she had already felt my annoyance so she asked me to wait for a few minutes then gave me a copy of that “special medical certificate” so the Municipal Health Officer could just affix her signature. She asked me to go back the next day because it was almost 5 PM.

That evening, I went to the other part of Cagayan de Oro with my relatives. My other maternal uncle the third among them, is a pastor so I asked my cousin (my uncle's eldest daughter) to ask his dad via text message to prepare a baptismal certificate for me so I could get it by the time we reached their house. When we had arrived at their house, her dad told me that he had asked his secretary to prepare the document and he asked me to meet him the next morning to get the papers. Again, I told myself “what a waste!” Cagayan de Oro is one hour (or more) away from Villanueva. So I had to travel to CDO then back to Villanueva and then what? What time would I be finished accomplishing everything? For more than an hour, I remained silent, nodding and just saying two to three words whenever my relatives wanted to talk to me. After a while, I asked my uncle if he owns a computer with printer or if he knows someone who owns one, or if there's a computer shop nearby. Thinking that he's a Pastor, I asked whether he has a pattern of Baptismal Certificate, to which he gave me a pad of Baptismal Certificates in parchment paper. Eureka! I got two copies, one for my mom, and the other for my dad, asked for my uncles and aunts (relatives but with different surnames) to sign as witnesses and finally, my uncle signed on the pastor's part. He told me that these certificates are legal since he has been ordained since 1983 and under the canonical law of the Assembles of God, (I am not sure about this in other denominations/religions) , it was okay for pastors to baptize their own relatives. Okay, problem solved!

I thought it was going to be easy since there were only two things left for me to accomplish the next day: first is to have the Municipal Health Officer's signature affixed on the “Special Medical Certificate” and second, is to undergo an interview with the Municipal Civil Registrar. I hurriedly went to the Municipal Health Center only to be informed that the MHO had gone to Cagayan de Oro City to attend a seminar sponsored by the Department of Health. The staff couldn't give me an assurance that the MHO would be back, and they had even advised me to drop by her house to ask for her signature. So I thought, if I were the MHO and somebody had asked for my signature while I was in the comfort of my home, I would say “Please see me in the office on Monday”. In addition, most government workers, if they had to attend field works, do not drop by the office to log out, so I concluded that she would not be coming back. When I went back to the Office of the Municipal Civil Registrar before noon, the same clerk advised me to wait for the MCR to arrive, and she would give me a call once “Sir” had arrived, because he had to go somewhere to fix something.

At around two o'clock, my uncle and I went back to the Office of the MCR, and the clerk again told us that “Sir” hadn't arrived yet, and that he might not be coming back, so I need to wait until Monday. The day before, she advised me to wait for the MCR because: 

1. My personal appearance was required because “Sir” would be asking me some questions, like an interview, and that my personal appearance would be a proof that I AM really a female person and 

2. I would not be allowed to sign the petition without the MCR's approval and without his approval, my effort would become useless. 

I begged her to just give me a certificate that she had received my requirements in behalf of the MCR since I really needed to go back to Manila because I had to work the following Monday and since I already had completed my requirements. I also asked her if I could pay the fees and ask her on my behalf to forward my “Special Medical Certificate” to the Municipal Health Officer since she had already affixed her signature to the Medical Certificate Issued by Tagoloan Polymedic Hospital. However, my pleas were not heard; instead, she assured me that since government offices usually have flag ceremony on Monday morning, the MCR and MHO would be around. 

Author's Note: This is a repost. I accidentally deleted what I posted last April. Special thanks to my cousin Jimsen Floran Biasong for the pictures.