Inefficiency

"Ask another silly question."

I was at the NAIA to catch a flight to Taipei last Monday.  I lined up, as is my wont, in the queue that is reserved for senior citizens, PWDs or those who need assistance (mostly wheelchair bound) and those travelling with infants.

It was a long line with only one immigration agent in the till.  I cannot understand why the immigration supervisors in the airport have not seen it fit to separate the line for seniors from those travelling with infants and young children. This is especially so since families who travel have not only infants, but also young teens who could line up along with the ordinary folk. But since the usual among Filipino families is to have a couple plus four or five children, all of them line up in this counter.

I can understand that the BID is undermanned at the moment, after many resigned due to the DBM’s stand against overtime allowances being charged to airline fees.  I also understand that after some current controversies, the BID is into purging misfits and corrupt personnel.

I was standing for some 20 minutes with the line moving so slow when the 6.1 intensity earthquake struck.  For a while, everything was at a standstill, understandably. When  the processing of passengers in our queue resumed, it was still interminably slow for that solitary agent who had to take photos and fingerprints of several children, infants and teens together.

A bit dizzy, I asked a lady BID agent who was on the way out of the immigration area why they could not divide the queue into two lines, one reserved for seniors and another for those travelling with “infants.”  Her cold response: “Iisa ho kasi ang nasa counter.”

Ask another silly question.

Senior citizens cannot stand long without some level of leg pain.  I recall a similar queue last year when a MECO board director, much more senior than I, complained because his legs were hurting.

I have never sought special treatment in all my years in public office. I find it unseemly to assert privilege, and prefer to comport myself like an ordinary citizen.  No “hatid” or “sundo.”

But the minutes were ticking and my legs were beginning to hurt, my patience strained. So I did something I have never done in the past—ask someone high in the BID totempole to have me assisted.

Immediately I was, and got to my plane on time.  But it was assistance that I did not have to, and am not proud to be accorded privilege.

Supervisors do roam around, and it would have been a relatively simple act to assign another agent to man another counter.  If I were a BID supervisor, I would myself man a counter just to address the long lines.

In another instance, a friend of mine last Monday morning spent four hours at the LTO satellite office in Robinson’s Metro East mall just to renew his driver’s license.  He arrived at 8:20 in the morning and was assigned the 25th number, others having arrived ahead.  He went through medical examination (whatever passes for such), as well as data and photo capture.

However when it was time to get his biometrics and signature, he had become Number 67 on the line.  Senior citizens plus a number of "singit."

Said he: “While I am aware that senior citizens were being given the courtesy of not having to fall in line, they cut into the main line. Why not a dedicated senior citizen line?”

Systems, systems, systems.  And very few “public servants” willing to be up on their feet to address simple daily problems in government offices; to adjust, to adapt, and make things convenient for the public they serve.

Mercifully, my friend got a license valid for five years, an improvement that happened only because President Duterte in 2016 so ordered.  The same way passports are now good for 10 years instead of just five. Again, credit that to Duterte and his oft-repeated avowals of disdain for making the ordinary man suffer due to governmental inefficiency, incompetence, corruption or all three rolled into one.

It is bad enough that many “public servants” got their jobs because of some influential recommendation.  But then again, once one becomes a government worker, at least be efficient, be service-oriented, and make yourself worthy of the highly prized recommendation, instead of using the same as badge of privilege.  The privilege to be abusive, to be lazy, to be inefficient—at taxpayers’ expense.

Here’s another:  A friend sought my assistance for the plight of his wife and co-workers who have been entrenched in a big travel agency that decided to down-size operations in the country since Jan. 15, 2019.

To date, all of the employees have yet to receive their separation and other benefits.  The company claims that the same could not be released without the tax exemption issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

It may be the season for filing income tax returns, and the BIR examiner involved may be “burdened,” or may claim so.

But the families of these workers rely on these benefits to support their families while looking for new employment.

I have written to BIR Commissioner Billy Dulay and reported the name of the BIR examiner. May hinihintay bang pag-ayos yung examiner?

Hopefully the matter will soon be addressed, and if I know the hard-working and dedicated Billy Dulay, he will act on it fast.

But must it always be like this?  Must things move in government only when someone intercedes?

“Galit ako sa inyo!” President Duterte always threatens.

How I wish his anger towards corruption, inefficiency and incompetence spews more often.

I end this article with a quote from Senator Ping Lacson that I read in the papers before:  “If corruption is counter-productive, inefficiency and incompetence can even be worse.” 

Amen to that.