It occurred to me the other day that I hadn't updated my blog for a few months, I checked and the last was before Christmas, so we are looking at 3 months since last I wrote anything. This is of course all complicated by the fact that between Kat and myself, we make daily or more frequent posts on social networking sites such as Facebook, Foursquare and Instagram. Anyway that no withstanding, here is my first contribution for 2014.

We have been quite busy over the past few months, we are having a house built and this is coming along very well. After selling my flat back in the UK and getting the money over here we bought the lot from the developer and discussed options with the architect.  In order to stay within budget we had to forgo a completely custom design and have some tweaks done to one of his existing layouts. The first set of plans were OK but compromised rather on what I had originally wanted, but with a bit more time and knowing which lot we now had, he was able to come up with a design incorporating 2 beds and bathrooms (comfort rooms or CRs) upstairs, the master is en-suite along with a family area for watching TV or playing on the PS3, a downstairs bedroom and CR and large kitchen, dining and living area. On the 8th December the lot was marked out and a couple of holes had been dug, at the time of writing, the main construction has been completed, all the walls are in place, the roof structure has been erected and the floor slabs for both ground and upper floor have been poured (the upstairs had been done before Christmas).

It turns out that our design has caused the architect and his construction firm some challenges, not least of which was the inclusion of solar water heating as well as passive cooling of the property where possible by the use of shade from the roof and positioning of windows to maximise light but control the warming effect of large quantities of glass. We are installing solar reflective film on the windows to further reduce the heating effect and also to provide some privacy, which will be great until we turn on the interior lights.

One amusing moment was when I enquired whether we could run electric power out to the fence, our architect looked horrified to inform me that this was not permissible here in the Philippines thinking I wanted an electric fence, I actually only wanted to have some lights installed on the gate posts…..

We are also having air conditioning installed which I am hoping not to use too much, partly due to the high cost of electricity. Since I am not a fan of the 'window rattler' type, although these are easy to control, they are noisy and intrusive, so we are having split systems installed. Since we are having a domestic install, a multi-split is probably not cost effective, so we are going to end up with 4 internal and 4 external (the compressor) units, our architect has made some modifications to the design to accommodate these, where the sound will be attenuated by walls etc. 

In addition to all this, we had several parties to attend over the holiday season, one of which was even sponsored by a medical products company, we had to listen to a short presentation during dinner, much to the amusement of other customers, but a result none the less.

Also there have been several licences, memberships and other document applications, submissions and renewals going on. Earlier I related the rather sorry tale of renewing Kat’s Professional Regulation Commission licence to practice medicine, which has to be conducted every three years. Well the good news is that the new ID card is ready; this took almost 4 months to obtain, we shall go and collect it on Monday (yes, we have to go get it..) which leads me on to one of this month’s topics for the blog, the licence nightmare:-

It is well known that many countries have an overly complex bureaucracy, the Philippines being up there with India, Pakistan and Egypt in the complexity of getting things done. From observation I have noted that in order to qualify for or to renew a pre-existing qualification or registration for a number of essential documents, Filipinos are put through a mind boggling number of requirements, I shall provide examples:-

• To obtain a driving licence it is necessary to undergo a medical, including a urine test for drug screening. The practical test and written exam, medical etc. can be completed in a single day if you arrive early at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) facility. I actually managed to achieve this with some help. Time taken, 9 hours
• To renew one’s driving licence, (this has been recorded as 38 minutes from arrival to departure for President Nonoy Aquino a week or two ago, he was not accorded any special treatment) average person probably 2 hours or so, this can now be transacted in some shopping malls.
• National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clearance, required for a number of things including employment, travel overseas etc. can now be applied for online, however you need to attend the local centre and queue up with those that didn’t use the online service to pay etc. and then return to be issued with clearance, time for Filipinos 2 to 3 days, for foreigners, 1 month
• PhilHealth registration (government run health insurance), must be transacted in person, since Kat is a doctor we were able to shortcut the normal process and use a dedicated desk, re-registering her as an accredited doctor able to provide care to patients and for us to be jointly covered in case of illness, total time under 1 hour. However the waiting room was full of ordinary folk waiting for the process to be completed. We shall have to wait around 6 weeks for the new card to be issued in Kat’s married name!!
• I bought a car back in November, I was at the time issued a temporary registration document, which was little more than a receipt from the dealership to confirm I had paid them for the car identified by the chassis and engine numbers etc. The car has no number plate, instead I am using the “Conduction Number” which is as far as I can tell a unique identifier issued by the LTO (what’s the difference? I hear you ask) at the time of writing this, I have just received a copy of the new registration document, but still no number plate or even plate number, so will continue to use the conduction number for a few more weeks.

As I mentioned before, most of the transactions carried out here are done in a serial manner, with the applicant travelling from desk to desk, window to window or office to office in a scripted if not well designed ballet. Each requires queuing or waiting in a seating area to be called to a window and the whole process from start to finish can take several hours, when you add travel time to this it is clear that each Filipino probably wastes several days on average each year to obtain these documents, what cost to productivity???

• To fulfil the requirements of my submission for residency here, I need to submit my NBI clearance (obtained fairly painlessly) as well as a similar document from the UK, the problem is that the UK document needs to be not only authenticated by the British Embassy, who for the cost of a little over ₷2000 (about £30) copied my certificate and embossed it with the seal of the embassy and a statement that it was genuine, they do not actually check with ACPO back in the UK, although it does have a hologram seal. This document then needs to be validated by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) who take the copy (not original) and attach a red ribbon, a process known oddly enough as “red ribboning”.
• My sister in law is intending to depart for Qatar to work for a couple of years, to meet the requirement of her new employer, she is required to have a recent copy of an NBI clearance, not unreasonable, however since the job is out of the country, she is also required to get the DFA to red ribbon it before she can leave, I am at a loss to see the value add…..
• Likewise, it would seem that once I have been successful and obtained my residency permit/visa/registration, I am unable to travel out of the Philippines without a re-entry permit, I am not sure of the cost, but it won't come free, issued by the Bureau of Immigration to state that I am not fleeing the country from a criminal charge or wanted elsewhere; these things are a one time usage so far, although can be obtained at fairly short notice, even at the airport apparently, but I am not entirely happy that my freedom to travel is being compromised in such a way, if all foreigners are criminals or suspected criminals then don’t let them in!!!!

I have recently opened two bank accounts, one took me nearly 4 weeks to get my ATM card and a further month to get my online access passwords etc. however the provided ATM card was not acceptable to online merchants such as iTunes and Amazon, so I had to open another account, this one was fully complete in under 5 hours, and that included getting a fully functional debit/ATM card, PIN and on-line access, why can’t it all be like this?????