FREEDOM OF MOBILITY IMPERILLED

If we are getting just our birth certificates, why do we have to go through a very circuitous procedure? 

Way back in the 80's my friends who lived in Kentish Town in London got their passports from the post office. As easy as that.

But here, the Dept of Foreign Affairs wants us to present our birth certificate from the Civil Registrar in the city where we were born and then submit this to PSA so that the DFA will get a PSA-issued birth certificate! So after the City or town hall issues the birth certificate it will be given to the PSA which will then issue a PSA birth certif document.


Do you see the snake-like procedure, Folks? 1. Get the bc from the local registry ( which requires five steps and so you could spend a whole day queuing up and chatting with the receptionist and xeroxing your materials.)


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At the PSA main office here in QC I saw a mother applicant carrying her child because she has no caregiver at home. I also saw an elderly on a wheelchair. Over a thousand people were at the hall sitting down, waiting for their names to be called, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.


True the government must earn some money but does it have to be through this way?


What is a passport? It is an ID so that we will be identified in foreign countries.


Then we also have such a thing as freedom of mobility. By the procedures that the DFA dictates, it sounds as if it suspects everyone of being notorious by asking the PSA to certify that the individual was born here. They will not accept the copy bc coming from the local registry.


The circuitous procedures breed instances of bribery. Applicants for passports will just pay someone to get it for them. And so how sure is DFA that all applicants are honestly submitting valid documents? 

With all the high technologies we have, why can't the DFA ask the various agencies, "Please certify that this person has no pending criminal record because we want to let him or her get out of the country."

That's all. So the NBI, the PNP and all other agencies will be obliged to answer. To be able to implement this, the DFA will create a passport division with research component for the background of applicants may be sourced through online communication with NBI, PNP, etc. 

We should free the load of the PSA and let it concentrate on more pressing data like -.how many deaths occurred last year due to hunger? How many students dropped out of school? How many teenagers are giving birth and how many are living alone without any support from the partner? How many companies are folding up and for what reasons? How many are closing shop because they cannot pay the rent? What is the highest cause of death in the country? 

How many are.............????? we have many questions that need answers. We need to raise them so that we will know where the P70M per district allotments are going. These are the more pressing questions for the PSA. Let the local registries deal with DFA with regard to birth certificates. 

Allow us more breathing space to live, please.

PS Folks look how simple it is to get a passport in the UK:

 1. UK passports may be applied for through the local Post Office and apply by post, or use the Post Office Check and Send Service.

2. Emergency passports are issued by British embassies across the world. Emergency passports may be issued to any person holding British nationality. Commonwealth citizens are also eligible to receive British emergency passports in countries where their country of nationality is unrepresented.