Nightshift:call center agent’s blog

The local Philippine National Police has just given me a reason to continue to manage the municipality’s newspaper.

I was compelled to pay an additional P 30 for the Police Clearance without giving a receipt or even a simple note as a proof that I paid them the amount. Worst, if I will be given an official receipt, I have to pay an additional P 5 as payment for that receipt. At around 10 this morning, I went to the old municipal building to secure a police clearance. It is one of the requirements I would submit to my new employer. I was told by a staff, which I suppose was a trainee, to get first an Official Receipt from the Office of the Municipal Treasurer.

I asked the tricycle driver to bring me to the new municipal building. I lined up in the Treasurer’s Office, presented my Community Tax Certificate (cedula) so that they won’t misprint my name, and paid the P 25.

Go back again to the old municipal building which houses the police station. I presented my cedula, the receipt and the Barangay Clearance. Then the staff typed it in the computer and I waited for around 10 minutes. I thumb marked the clearance.
I thought it’s already done.

The lone police woman there asked me for an additional P 30 for the clearance. I said I already paid it and showed the receipt. I forgot to get her name and rank, but I had a picture of her in my photo gallery.

Â? I am confused. What else should I pay more?

She said they would use the money to buy ink, water and other office supplies. I wrote my name in the logbook, and if I remember it correctly, my number is 1469.

I demanded a receipt which I think is the standard procedure for any transaction that involves money. She said that they do not issue receipts, but it is okay if I don’t pay.

I argued that it is alright for me to pay, if it is the procedure. All I wanted is a receipt just to prove that I made the payment.

Another policeman, an unfamiliar face to me, said that if they would issue a receipt, I have to pay an additional P 5. That makes the total payment to P 35.

I repeated that the receipt don’t need to be official. Even a simple note would note. Still, the two refused.

The policeman told me that what I paid in the treasurer’s office was for the municipal government and not for the police. The amount they are collecting is for the police. But you are given a budget isn’t? (Their budget this year is P 442, 000, according to the document the newspaper acquired from the Municipal Budget Office. It is P 237, 000 more than 2005’s budget. Click here for the newspaper article in PDF.)

I can already feel the steam in the station, though there were only three of us inside. The rest are outside of the station, watching people and vehicles pass by.When I was about to leave, I just told them “Salamat na lang po” (Thank you.)

To my regret, I have to pay the P 30.

Here’s my view:

It’s not about money. It is about corruption.

Again, it doesn’t matter to me even if I pay P 100 pesos for the police clearance, or for any government document that I need. Money has never been the issue for me (alright, I’m exaggerating). My parents did not raise me like that. I never argue because of money. Even in my previous job, the compensation maybe low compared with other companies in the same industry. But I do understand them since it’s a start-up Filipino company. The municipal mayor could even attest to that because for the two issues of the newspaper that I produced, what I got is a 4-digit payment. I did not complain.

This is about principle. How would I know if the payment I made is really for the maintenance of the office? What if they are just for gasoline of their private vehicles? What if it they would use it to buy beer or chicken from the store in front of the police station? What if they would just buy prepaid credits for the mobile phones? The possibilities are endless.

Last March 15, I secured from the same office the same document. But I only paid P 25 and I was issued a receipt. Why did the practice changed? Is it because the person who issued it to me know that I produce the municipality’s newspaper?

If they would charge me an additional P 30, why don’t they ask the Treasurer’s Office to make adjustments? Why don’t they just peg the police clearance at P 50 or P 60, with receipts, so that everything could be accounted for? The policeman said that what I paid is for the municipality and not the police. So why not the Treasurer’s Office issue collect money that would eventually be turned over to the police’s coffers?

Their argument that they would use the money for their office supplies. It is not the responsibility of the ordinary citizens to give them money for the maintenance of their office. That is the job of the government, whether local or national. Citizens pay taxes.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that what I paid for is for their office supplies. The cost of printing the police clearance would not even reach P 10.Where would they use the P 20?

If I am the 1469th payee of the P 30, or let’s just make it 1000th, they should have collected P 30, 000 already. Now I know why the policewoman was putting some amount of money in a black bag while I was waiting for the clearance.

Again, it is not about money. This is about my principle of honesty. One time after my shift, I took a bus in Ortigas Avenue going to Guadalupe. I paid the driver P 100, but he gave me P 150 plus as exchange for the P 10 fare. I could have been dishonest and just take the money. Payday is says away and I badly need an additional money. But I realized, how different would I be from corrupt politicians who take away people’s money for their personal use?

What would I do? I’ll be more aggressive this time. I will expose the wrongdoings of the police, not because I was aggravated, but because what they did is wrong. Anybody who is faced in the situation would be furious.

Just wait and see.