PHILIPPINES
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made the first moves in response to orders from Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte to cut through the country’s crippling Public Service bureaucracy.
Secretary of the Department, Teodoro Locsin said he was doing away with the requirement that a birth certificate be presented for each passport renewal.
Now only first-time applicants, renewal applications for lost or mutilated passports, and renewal applications requiring changes to passport entries will need a birth certificate.
Mr Locsin said old passports presented the best evidence of identity.
“How many times do you have to prove you are what the State declared you are in the expired passports?” Mr Locsin said.
Other Departments have yet to come on board, however, and gaining a clearance, permit, licence or document from Government offices is probably one of the most stressful ordeals many Filipinos have to go through.
Aside from the volume of paperwork one has to find, gather, bring or submit, ordinary folk have to contend with long lines and interminable waiting times to complete their transactions.
It is not unheard of for some employees to take a day off from work to get a needed Government document.
Compounding the aggravation are the redundant documentary requirements being imposed by different Agencies and Local Governments.
In many cases, people are asked to submit multiple identity documents such as a birth certificate, at least two Government-issued identification cards with a photo, signature and address, and other “supporting” documents such as utility bills and lease contracts.
Horror stories abound of bureaucrats demanding the presentation of decades-old real estate tax payment receipts to prove that the applicant has fully paid their taxes in previous years.
One journalist said it appeared the premise of most Government processes was that people were out to game the system, bend the rules, and manipulate the process to obtain a desired result.
Manila, 25 January 2019
