Dual citizenship

I've been hounding D to get his senior citizen card so we can avail of the 20% discount in restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies and the weekdays free movie tickets (well he is not a movie buff like me but it helps).

BUT.

He is busy with work.

When they declared October 14 and 15 as special non working holidays in the city of Manila and Pasay due to some risk reduction and disaster management conference at PICC, it was the perfect opportunity to sort out his documents.

First stop was at the nearest barangay to avail of the barangay certificate as proof of residency because we just moved here, a year ago.  Located at a very narrow two way road with trikes parked on both sides, it was difficult to find parking. In this case, I filled up the small form while he remained at the wheel. Then he signed, got his picture taken then I waited for the certificate which was released within 5 minutes. 

Second stop was at the LTO office for the revision of the address in his driver's license. Unfortunately, the first branch had no physical card but they were kind enough to direct us to another branch which was open until 4 P.M. We rushed there just before 2 P.M and since it was located near a mall, there was ample parking slots.  Driver's license with current address was issued within 10 minutes.

Our last stop - The office for senior citizen's affairs is NOT located at the city hall but at some small yet busy street with many tricycles and PUVs (public utility vehicles) occasionally causing traffic jams. We parked in some residential area and walked for a couple of blocks. He just needed to fill up a form, submit it together with the barangay certificate,  a photocopy of his birth certificate and two valid government IDs. Upon submission, his picture and biometrics were taken and in less than 2 minutes - his ATM like senior citizen card was issued. A far cry from the senior citizen cards of my late parents which were in paper form where you had to paste your 1x1 picture then have it laminated at National Book Store or at Fax n Parcel.

I'm glad the local officials were polite and very accommodating in serving the public. The documents were issued within just a few minutes. Much improvement than before when transacting with any goverment agency left much to be desired. My goodness, they were so masungit and very bureaucratic. The documents required for submission kept changing based on the mood of the person at the counter. It took me months just to transfer the ownership of our properties. It was physically draining to deal with them, not to mention the time wasted shuffling back and forth and the expenses of acquiring all those documents.

We, now enjoy the benefits from his SC card even though more often than not, he forgets his card at home or in the car. Poor guy is still in his denial phase. :D

Ay naku po!