When it came to travelling in Metro Manila, I only have one comfort
zone—anywhere along EDSA where LRT 1 and MRT passed through. So when I found
out that I needed a CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage) as a document I needed
for my church a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t very much up to the task,
especially when I found out that I had to go to the main National
Statistics Office in East Avenue.
I was like, “How the hell am I
supposed to get there?”
I hate travelling, especially
during the day. Working at the call center industry has made me a
sun-and-traffic-hating brat. What I hate even more than that was travelling to
a government office where long queues and even longer processing are to be expected
so I put off the task until I realized that almost a month had gone by. I
didn’t have anyone else who could request the documents for me because my
family is in Laguna, and kuripot as I have always been, I didn’t
want to pay P450 for the door-to-door
delivery service of NSO when I could
get it for only P195 if I personally process it, so amidst the scorching heat
at just eight in the morning, I went on my way to meet up with Patrick who
agreed to accompany me to East Avenue.
When I was 18 years old, I got my NSO-certified birth certificate at Caloocan
City Hall which is much closer to my apartment but when I called their office,
I was told that they no longer had the NSO Serbilis Center there and I had to
go to the main office in East Avenue. I searched online for ways on how to go
there. I planned to take the MRT to Kamuning and take the buses there that, as
I was told, would pass directly in front of NSO. However, Patrick said that there’s
a jeepney terminal at SM North that could take us to QC Hall. Now THAT, I wasn’t aware of. Had I
known that terminal, I wouldn’t have asked Patrick to accompany me anymore.
Unfortunately, I am a geographic idiot and Quezon City is one of my weaknesses,
so I didn’t want to risk it and Patrick was more than happy to go with me. That
was my first mistake, though, ‘getting him to accompany me’, followed by ‘not
knowing the easier route to my destination’.
We reached the Quezon City Hall and
took a jeepney along East Avenue to go to the NSO Serbilis Center. When we got
there at half past nine, it was already packed. I didn’t anticipate the volume
of people. Third mistake: ‘not knowing what time government offices open and
not getting there early’. The number I was given was 2541 and it wasn’t even 10
yet.
The
first step was filling out the forms. Near the entrance was a counter where a
guy gave out forms that needed to be filled out: birth/death certificate,
marriage, or CENOMAR request forms. Usually when I made reviews, I take photos
but the place was buzzing with activity and I was with Patrick, so there was no
time for “selfies”. I squeezed myself into one of the tables where I could fill
out the form in comfort while Patrick scouted the area. He came back just
before I completed the form and said that the number was still at 1000 and he
didn’t want me to wait too long so he took the liberty of checking out the
delivery service and said he would just pay for it. Like I said, getting him to
accompany was my first mistake. He was impatient and didn’t like waiting too
long and he’d just finished work then so he was a little bit cranky. I
explained to him that I already knew about that and that’s why I wanted to
process it myself because doing so was more economical. I told him he could
just go home and leave me there and that I was willing to wait but he insisted.
We argued a bit but in the end I succumbed. He wouldn’t leave without me and I
didn’t want him to have to wait too long when he was already tired.
I went
to the delivery service counter—a much less crowded area—and I was led to a
desk where I had to fill out a small piece of paper. I was told I would no
longer need the CENOMAR request form I filled out earlier. The NSO employee
made a call on his mobile then passed the phone over to me. It turned out to be
the NSO helpdesk rep who would put in the info on their database. It took us
about 15 minutes—all thanks to my overly-complicated and misspelled name. (I
have two names but my birth certificate bears one without a space in between. I
was actually not aware of that until my high school graduation when my adviser
confirmed it while she was processing graduation requirements. Before the year
2000, it didn’t matter and I was able to get away with it by just providing
an affidavit for a misspelled name, but when I entered college and
processed government documents, changing name was greater hassle so I just
stuck with the one-word name. Up to this day, all my documents bear that name.
As weird as it looks, I'm thankful for it come NBI clearance application time
because I was certain not to have a “hit”.)
After
taking my info, I took down the reference number and I was led to the payment
counter. Then that was it! Patrick and I were out and on our way home.
If I
took the online service, I would have saved a lot more for fare which was for
two because I dragged Patrick along with me. I computed everything and all in
all we spent P853 for fare and food. Wanting to save up, I ended up spending
more. Tsk, tsk… Well, I’m just charging it to experience. At least I learned
two things today:
1. If there’s an online service for a government document
you need, always—ALWAYS—take advantage of it. You will save time and energy, and
in my case, money.
2. ALWAYS plan ahead to avoid unnecessary
hassle.
As
a bonus, I now know how to go to the Quezon City Hall and NSO. Yay to me!
Haha.
Welcome
to the mosh pit that is my mind.
I
have so many ideas that I want to write about. A lot of them have already been
put into writing while others are still wrestling around up there, waiting for
someone to knock them over into paper (or in this case, online). I have tried
my luck keeping a blog since college and I have created multiple ones, on
multiple platforms, and on multiple occasions, but life always get in the way
and keep me from maintaining them decently.
Hopefully, this will be my thoughts’ permanent resting place. J
