Like all governments offices I have been to, this one is as bad. In my experience, it's only the Tax Collection offices that are really nice with short lines, plenty seats, air conditioned areas, and in Las Pinas office, free coffee with classical music pumping in the background. I live in the south area of the metro wherein the Muntinlupa and Las Pinas branches are equally near to me. I went to the Muntinlupa branch as advised by sister since she went to the Las Pinas City hall branch last December and there's none.
I got up early, took enough breakfast to brave the lines, some coffee, and got there before 7:30 AM. The Muntinlupa branch can easily by found around the market in Alabang just slightly across Star Mall. I saw some small signage so it took me easily to find it inside a building which I thought better than expected. I was expecting the office inside the wet market where there is plenty of noise, vehicles, and dirt.
Entering the building door, it just smacked me in the face on how many people was inside mostly in their youths, around 20-30+ ages. There are about 6 columns of lines with about more than 30 people each and every minute, people kept coming in. It supposed to be a challenge but the reality that it's already hot early in the morning and the density of people in such a small area is just stressful for me.
I stood there for about 10 minutes and quickly left. I had planned getting it in Robinson's Galleria in Ortigas where the company which I will be applying is near, but, laziness and not rushing through things got in me so I decided to get that piece of paper in Las Pinas so I could easily get home afterwards.
In Las Pinas City hall, to my dismay, it's the same thing. There's a lot of people but they could be found all over the place holding a form so I guess they must have their queue numbers already. The only difference compared to the Muntinlupa branch, the area is open and covered so the air is not as bad. I surveyed the area and looked for a person in charge. There's only one personnel and whose function to be controlling the forms with handwritten queue numbers on it. My complaint is, I have a copy of my former NBI clearances but I was informed that I would still need to complete the forms like I haven't had a file.
Understanding that since I've read stories in the internet that NBI's computers got messed up, I asked for the forms. The guy then required me for valid ID's so I showed him copies of my old NBI clearances to which he refused and said must be "two" which I immediately took another copy. He, realizing I didn't understood him, asked for an ID despite what I'm holding.
In essence, he was preventing me to get the form without he requires which I find very unreasonable. Anyways, I took my wallet and showed him my driver's license then he gave the stupid form at last and quickly walked away. I realized, its a way to prevent more applicants for the day which I can find the technique being employed in other government offices.
Cut the story short, I was not able to get that piece of paper and have to come back on April 3 which more likely caused by having my name similar to another, as they say. This delay had occurred to all times I requested for the clearance and never did they make use of my computer records on their system.
To my disappointment, they didn't require the Community Tax Certificate (cedula) which is partly my fault (due to following instructions on the wall) and the 150 pesos was used for nothing. To think, the NBI clearance is only 115 pesos.
One thing they did improve on is fingerprint recording which did not require staining my fingers with ink and then requiring me 5 to 10 pesos for the wet wipes to remove it. I don't know how much business or money this makes the agency as the most hardworking employees in their office seem to be undergrads while the veterans just monitor them.
I just hope that this new computer system they are using now should be able to facilitate future applications, not only for myself, but for everyone since this really requires almost of your day which is a big waste of effort, time, and money.
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