Let me start with Wednesday. I went to POEA at around 10 AM to check for the approval results of our petition. I proceeded to Tess's window. She told me to go to the fourth floor to check for Director's approval. When I got there, they informed me that the request has been forwarded to the deputy approval in the second floor, in room 201. I went there only to find out that it's the same room that I was before! When I got there, they said that the papers are now in the Admin department in third floor for evaluation. So I went up only to find out the the request is still pending! I asked for a phone number to contact for follow-up and they told me to call after lunch. I hung out at Galle for a while then met with Kido (the other Malaysia hopeful) for lunch. After that we went back to the third floor to check on the status. After around 30 minutes, a guy came out with our documents. After calling out our names, we immediately examined the papers for any sign of the result. Then there it was, a stamp of approval! Allelujah!!! We proceeded again to the second floor to continue with the rest of the processing. The guy passed our papers to window 4. After being called, we proceeded to window 10. Tess gave us the next steps:
a.) Scan the compliance letter, send to MY, have it signed, then send back to us via fax. Have 4 copies for myself and Kido.
b.) PDOS scheduling
We went home after having the PDOS scheduled.
That same day, I asked my Mom to claim my clearance from the Bureau of Immigration. She had a horrific encounter because of this. She had the ultimate Philippine government red tape experience, a treasure hunt for people who are supposedly taking care of DOST scholars' watch list. Looks like she had a very thorough tour of the entire four floors of the building. After arriving at the last pit stop, she battled the government personnel who should be processing my request for clearance. Apparently, after 1.5 weeks, they have now come to know that my request is "missing" and I should go back on Monday! Their excuse was that they were transferring and renovating the office thus the lack of organization. While our analysis was that they "lost" the request on purpose so that they could extort some money from us to speed up the processing. They wish! My mother went home really furious and stressed though. So I had no choice, I had to take care of this myself.
The next day I woke up early to go to BI, I even asked my brother to drive for me since I was so exhausted and he knew Manila streets better. I proceeded to the fourth floor, room 419 to ask for the status. They made me wait for an hour to just have them say to me "Mam, no action pa daw". Sorry, but patience is not my virtue. Fuming, I went to the window to demand for the proper person to talk to. At first, they were hesitant to help me. But, probably seeing that I was on the verge of an outburst, they looked for the lady who should be taking care of this. I think she was Nancy. She scanned their files for my document, then there it was all along! She asked me to pay for 500 at the first floor. I had to pay them that much just to clear my name from the watch list! What the hell, what was the payment for? For just deleting my name on the computer or for placing a phone call??? Philippine government offices are really so corrupt. After that, I gave the receipt to Nancy to get a clearance.
I went to POEA after, to have our Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS). Good thing the speaker was fast. We still had enough time to finish the rest of the processing. We gave our requirements to window 4. Again, we filled out another form aside from the countless ones we have already filled up previously. They made us wait for more than an hour, called our names, then asked us to proceed to Assessment. We were given a paper, then paid 6340 at the cashier at the FIFTH FLOOR, what's up with that, elevators aren't even working!!! We went back to 2nd floor, then got our e-receipts, our final ticket to being an OFW!!! Hurrah, we're set!!!
In conclusion, I have come to know that if you can afford it, DO NOT AVAIL DOST SCHOLARSHIP. I'm telling you, it's not worth it!!! But I hope all this hard work will pay off when I get to Malaysia.
*** My flight got delayed by another week because of the Immigration issues from DOST
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