My original plan is to renew my passport via Robinson's Galleria's DFA Satellite branch. But Unfortunately, when I was trying to get a schedule online, no dates are available since I prefer to have it renewed on a Saturday so that it won't interfere with work. By the way, passport services on Saturdays cost more compared to the fee that you'll be paying if you get it on weekdays. It is considered as "rush fee" of Php1,200 compared to the Php950 on weekdays.
Anyway to cut the long story short, I got a Saturday schedule in SM Megamall. The date I got was May 17,2014 at 2pm. I arrived there 1 hour early, and I was surprise to see a bunch of people queued in line. I don't know if it was just my misfortune that I got a wrong date, if it was really that crowded on a Saturday or what. I've asked few people for feedbacks before, and they told me that it was just like a 20-30 mins. process. I renewed my passport on a total of 3 hours! I really didn't expect it would take me that long.
To add salt to the wound, or to make this process even more annoying for me, my passport is scheduled to be delivered last May 29, but unfortunately it was not delivered on time. In fairness to them, they sent me a text message telling me that there has been a problem in the printing of the passports in DFA, that's why they can't deliver it on time. The thing that annoys me is that, I sent them a message asking them of the exact date when they can deliver it, but I didn't get any response. Their so called hotlines are also useless. If that is the case, maybe it is better if they just don't give out USELESS cell phone and landline numbers.
The thing is, there are other things that I need to do rather than to wait for my precious passport to arrive. My only worry is, what if they deliver it here and no one's home? If they only fix their process and deliver the passports on time, there will be no problem at all.
This is one of the many reasons why our country is still one of the "poorest" with less improvements at all. Aside from corrupt politicians, poor and unimproved system specifically in government offices are the reasons why our country sinks from all the rest.
PS: My worry about not receiving my passport sooner was fueled with the feedbacks I read from this site : http://dfa-pampanga-passport-appointment.blogspot.com/2013/03/dfa-at-sm-megamall-contact-number-email.html
If I already found this page before I went to schedule my renewal in Megamall, I would have decided differently and tried other satellite offices other than here.
Friday, May 30, 2014
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