Senseless ‘lords of the realm’

It’s total lack of common sense on the part of public officials that bedevils our bureaucracy, as usual. Remembering President Duterte’s advice to taxpayers when they come face to face with such type of “public servants” (“Sampalin mo!”), I myself nearly made a scene had I not counted up to 10 before acting out what I was thinking.

In the case of Jokee Reyes (“A tale of a public servant’s costly ignorance,” Opinion, 4/25/17), the clerk at the Department of Foreign Affairs in charge of passport applications must have only followed orders from a higher official who insisted that the deficiency in the birth certificate of the passport applicant be corrected. How that official ever passed any test for competency or sanity puzzles me.

A birth certificate showing Ospital ng Maynila as place of birth without indicating where that hospital is must have made that DFA official wonder helplessly where the heck it is. By simply googling, he/she could have easily discovered its actual location. No other Ospital ng Maynila can be found anywhere else but in Manila, duh!—as no other Ospital ng Makati or Mandaluyong can be found anywhere else but in Makati or
Mandaluyong, double duh!!

Apparently, that official could not be bothered to do anything extra for the benefit of an already harassed citizen and a taxpayer. Besides, is it not already public knowledge which city that hospital is found? For Pete’s sake, it’s just a few blocks away from the DFA building on Roxas Boulevard.

I had my own stressful discombobulation with the Register of Deeds (RD) for Manila years ago. My lawyer had our case annotated with a “notice of lis pendens” by simply writing that
office with a copy of our complaint. In time, a compromise agreement was reached; and no longer needing a lawyer, I wrote the RD a “notice of cancellation” of the “lis pendens.” I thought it was as simple as that.

I was so wrong. The RD required me to file a notarized “petition” for its “approval,” for which I was told to come back in a week or two. I had to pay P200 for notarization, in addition to the filing fees. It made me wonder why I still needed the RD’s “approval” for the cancellation of the notice I myself caused to be annotated. My lawyer’s letter for annotation was not notarized. Why should mine for cancellation be? Walang sense! And yet, that’s the typical mindset of bureaucrats who, by sheer hubris, think of themselves as “lords of the realm.”

Mr. President, puede ho bang batukan ang mga katulad nito?!

GRACE PO-QUICHO, [email protected]