BI OFFICE CLOSES AT 3 P.M. Two lady reporters could not help but pity the foreigners who went to the Bureau of Immigration (BI) field office at the Dagupan City Astrodome last week, only to find it closed or unattended.

The two reporters decided to help the foreigners who were helplessly wondering why the office was already closed when it was only 3:00 p.m. on a Thursday, a working day. They knocked hard and loud through the office’s steel door and window and identified themselves as reporters who wanted to ask the boss something.

A guard inside opened the door and told the reporters to talk to Gilbert Lopez, alien designated officer, who could explain why the office was closed. We waited. Apparently, the absence of a simple notice about the office hour would have easily helped the situation.

Okay, the BI here lacks manpower. That’s common in many government offices. They have to close early to do their financial transactions with a government bank to catch up to the closing time. That’s understandable.

The BI local chief said foreigners in Pangasinan who transact their business here are notified that they have to come before 3:00 p.m. Well, perhaps, this information has not reached many because they keep on flocking to the office past that hour.

The BI here opens its services at 7 a.m. daily during working days. That’s great news. So visitors people from foreign land, why not come there early?

Mr. Lopez welcomed the suggestion that a notice in big bold letters be posted on the door informing the public about the 3pm deadline for processing of documents in order to save everyone the time and aggravation.  The 3pm deadline is similar to the policy implemented by The Philippine Statistics Authority for processing of birth, marriage/no marriage, death certificates.

Tsk tsk tsk.  The government spends huge money with nonsensical expenditures. Why not allocate more funds for additional personnel to income-generating offices like the BI in order that clients can be served till 5 pm?

Haaaay, Pilipinas kong mahal.— Tita Roces

 

NO TO MALL VOTING – It is a sad thing that only one or two voters from around Robinson’s Place Calasiao attended the public hearing on mall voting at the mall on February 4 despite prior invitations from the election office in that town.

Most of those who attended that the public hearing called by Comelec Regional Director Noli Pipo and Provincial Elections Supervisor Marino Salas were politicians running for local positions in the coming elections.

Save for Atty. Felicing Manipud and another one from San Miguel, all others who spoke in that public hearing were politicians even if they were informed before hand that was a forum to discuss the issue on mall voting.

Incidentally, all– including Atty. Manipud, a former election officer of Calasiao–seemed allergic to mall voting which is a new concept being introduced by Comelec as a way of making  access in polling places more convenient and less cumbersome to voters, especially Persons with Disabilities or PWDs and senior citizens.

We have several shopping malls in Pangasinan and Region 1 but only those three places were considered by the Comelec for mall voting.

We hope the voters in those two other places, including others outside of Region I, had an opened mind to mall voting which to our mind is an act whose time has come. – Leonardo Micua

(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)

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