The Philippine government requires Filipino minors (below 18) to secure travel clearance if they will have to travel abroad unaccompanied by both parents. If only one parent is travelling with the child, the accompanying parent is required to present a notarized affidavit of consent from his/her spouse.
We were to visit Tokyo Disneyland but Grace preferred to stay home. It was only me and my daughter who actually travelled to Japan. Because of this requirement, she went to a notary public for a copy of the affidavit. This however, needs to be duly countersigned by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) officer with jurisdiction over your place of residence. For details on the requirements, visit http://www.dswd.gov.ph.
I had a Problem Solving and Decision Making seminar/workshop that day so I asked my wife to come to the training center so I can accompany her to the DSWD office in Malate during our lunch break. We arrived there at 12:30pm with about 20 applicants waiting. The office is located along FT Benitez St. near corner Pedro Gil.
The guard gave us a number card. I left Grace and Honey at 1pm and returned to the training center. They were still at the DSWD office when we completed the training at 4:30pm so I went back to wait for them. I asked what was making them so long; they stayed there for more than four hours!
Grace told me that there were irregularities in the distribution of queue numbers. She said, there was a lady who arrived past 4pm but she got number 71 (ours was 84). She learned that the lady paid the guard 50 pesos for that number. She added that the man (holding number 112) who overheard their conversation, went to the guard; after a while he went out from the clearing room with his documents complete. Before we came to DSWD that day, I called their office at 7:30am to check the requirements and their location. The other party asked me if I wanted to reserve a number. Because we were unsure that we were coming, I said no. Based on the foregoing, it shows that it could have been a paid reservation.
At 5:20, our number was called. In fairness, the officers on duty were kind and approachable; there were three of them directly processing applications. It took us less than 10 minutes to complete processing. But imagine five hours of waiting!
As I see it, the guard(s) distributed number cards but they reserve numbers for those who wish to 'buy and cut the line'.
Would you rather wait for five hours? Or pay 50 pesos?
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