(Sometimes) The Government Works!

Got a pleasant surprise this morning. Efficiency can and does exist in government. Or at least it did in the DFA this morning when Patty and I renewed our passports and got new ones for Gabi and Bela. The whole process took us all of 23 minutes! Twenty-three minutes for four passports! Wow, I was truly impressed.

We went to the DFA fully expecting a tedious process and a long wait, much like the registration marathon organized by the COMELEC.

The secret? To course everything through a reputable third party service provider.

We chose LBC's Telephone Passport Express service. We simply logged on to their website, downloaded the forms, had our photos taken and submitted all the needed documents to the nearest LBC branch.

Other service providers are Pilipinas Teleserv Inc. and DHL. The DFA itself offers this fast track service through its online passport appointment system.

We were informed of our appointment schedule in the DFA via SMS and told to go to the LBC booth "at the DFA basketball court beside DHL and look for Renato Frogosa."

There was already a large crowd when we got to the basketball court. These were the applicants who didn't go through LBC or any of the other service providers. It looked like these applicants were going to spend the whole morning here.

There were about ten of us who were given the same appointment. We were briefed on the rather straight forward process and in 5 minutes we were already ushered into the passport processing section across the street.

We were then asked to sign our application form in the presence of a DFA officer and our thumbprints were taken. That was it! We were done and free to go. The passports will be delivered to the house in a week's time. Wow.

I walked away from there thinking, for just a split second, that sometimes we get the right service for the taxes we pay.