No red carpet for great unwashed

It’s the time of the year for paying real estate taxes, and all of us try to pay our share as law-abiding citizens. We take out our cash savings and troop to where payments are to be made.

As it was the first working day of the year, I deemed it my duty to pay my dues for the Fort property in our name. I have always lined up to pay my bills so I did not have great expectations about having an easy time, and yet it was the first thing I wanted to do on a Monday morning. I went to Taguig City Hall as I have done in the past two years. I was lucky that a member of my staff, Irene Tabalno, volunteered to assist me as I have told her about the obstacles one must hurdle just to give the government of Taguig money for its operations.

I was in for a shock. It was just 9 a.m. and already the room was filled with people. There were no assigned lines; people had to insert themselves inside a teeming circle. Everyone was milling around a guy who was getting documents left and right to be validated and evaluated before payment. Thank God, Irene managed to hand over my documents.  I looked around for a seat but all seats were taken. I also noticed there was just one cashier handling all the payments.

Then I saw a sign: “Senior Citizens Priority Lane.” I asked above the din of human voices where it was, and I was told there was none: “Wala po, halo-halo na po.” The room was densely packed, and since there was no air-conditioning, it smelled of sweat and grime.

By the time I got a number—110—it was already 11:30 a.m. I asked the man giving out numbers what number was being served. The reply was No. 80. I asked what time my number would be called and he said I could go out for lunch and come back. So Irene and I went out to have lunch at a nearby mall. Since I had noticed that there was only one cashier taking the payments, we took our time window-shopping.  Good thing the mall was air-conditioned and efficient.

Irene then volunteered to go and check what number was being called. Shortly she texted me: “They reached 100 but they went back to No. 1”—which meant there were 109 more to go before our turn. I said: What’s happening?  They could have told us we were No. 210; at least we would have known how impossible that number would be served within the day.

I thought: How could they do this to people with good intentions? We were there to pay our taxes. And the people assigned to collect our taxes blinded us into believing that our number could be served that day. Who in the world issues a number of 110 and when he reaches 100 counts from No. 1 again? When will 110 be ever called?

I went to the municipal hall and squeezed my old body to get to the elevator so I could inquire at the Office of the Mayor. The staff members there were all idle. I saw another senior citizen there who absurdly said we should just be served first so there would be no more problems. Well, I did not like his proposition.  It was too self-serving. What about the masses of people waiting for their turn downstairs?

One of the ladies in the mayor’s office noticed that I was getting really infuriated. “Ma’am,” she said, “do you read the ‘I Love Taguig’ website?” As I was really annoyed by that time, I said, “I don’t love Taguig so do not expect me to read anything that says ‘I love Taguig.’” She said I could go to a high-end mall to pay my taxes. “It is a good place to go because there are less people,” she said, then handed me the “I Love Taguig” article from the Taguig website. She also handed me a small press release that said: “Taguig City will give the business community the VIP treatment they deserve.”

I read what was written, and it said Taguig business owners would be given the VIP treatment at “BOSS (Business One Stop Shop).” I was not in the class of big businesspersons, so I thought I was not entitled to red-carpet treatment. Also, no sign was posted in City Hall to tell the great unwashed that they could go to that mall.

It was almost 3 p.m. and No. 60 was being served (I was No. 110). It was possible that they would go back to No. 1 again. The municipal staff also announced that they would be there only until 5 p.m.

So we left Taguig City Hall and headed to that mall. And lo and behold, there was indeed a red carpet.  Gosh! What a huge difference it was from City Hall where the great unwashed converged. None of the people there knew there was a heavenly place like this where they could pay their taxes in peace. Or if they did, it was specified that the red carpet was just for businessmen. No one told them they could also pay taxes in BOSS even if they were not bosses themselves.

I was there by accident. I was an angry senior citizen who insisted I should be treated better because I was paying my taxes. I got the red-carpet treatment but I felt sad for the anak pawis I had left behind.

Sylvia Europa-Pinca is president and CEO of Europa Public Relations.