Heroes’ ordeal

It took a report by Stella O. Gonzales, former chief of Inquirer News Service and now an editor of the Financial Times of London, for the top people of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to realize the agency has to deliver more efficient and prompt service to the hundreds of thousands of overseas Filipino workers.

Gonzales recounted her ordeal in applying for an exit clearance which, ironically, was not even checked by immigration officers when she left for London last month. She was made to fill out many forms, was passed on from one official to another, made to wait hours for signatures and told to return the next day for another procedure.

Thousands of OFWs, called “the new heroes of the country,” suffer a similar ordeal every day. But they have to go through it if they want to be able to leave for jobs abroad.

We wonder: Are there no managers, supervisors in the POEA who see to it that things are running smoothly in an office that is entrusted with a very important task? Apparently none, or the ordeal recounted by Gonzales would not be repeated every day, every week, every month.

But Gonzales’ experience is not new insofar as government service is concerned. Generally, government employees, particularly those who have to deal with ordinary citizens, are lackadaisical about their work. Many report late or go home early. A lot of their time is spent reading the papers, exchanging gossip, goofing around, spending two hours for lunch, doing their manicure and doing other things that have nothing to do with public service. Often they give citizens needing their service the runaround.

It is time this fact is again drilled into government officials and employees’ heads: that they are public servants, that they get their salaries from the tax money paid by ordinary citizens, and that therefore they have to render efficient and prompt service to the people.