Quick Post: A Glimpse of Bacolod While Chasing OWWA
The main reason for this last trip home was to attend a family wedding and it was held in the City of Smiles, Bacolod.
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| Souvenir Mini Mask |
Bacolod is the capital of the Philippines' sugarbowl, Negros Occidental and the city is famous for its annual MassKara festival. Its not the biggest city, but it is definitely not lacking in charms.
We were in the city for two and a half days, a huge chunk of which was spent dining, preparing, and partaking in the wedding celebration. Prior to flying to our destination, I was actually excited to join the city tour planned for guests as Bacolod has long intrigued me. Intriguing mostly because we have several friends from the city and so far, all we've heard are good accounts of the place of their youth. Unfortunately, what little time we had to spare was spent chasing paperwork for one of the most bureaucratic government agencies in the country - the POEA.
I've lived in three countries and have never heard of a process as troublesome or as silly as what Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have to go through each time they need to register or renew their OWWA registration with the POEA. The whole thing reeks of extortion and you would think that they'd at least try and make the process easier but no... my head was ready to pop the first few minutes of stepping into the POEA head office in Ortigas and after the day's hassle, still didn't get registered. In desperation, and from listening to the best advice we've ever received, we decided to try our luck registering with the POEA office in Bacolod.
Surprisingly, the POEA staff in Bacolod were friendly, polite, and very helpful. To be honest, I was a bit shell-shocked the first few minutes of dealing with them. It was just so ridiculously different to how things were in Ortigas. It is a sad day when I am amazed by simple acts of kindness and basic ethics, even sadder when this happens to me in my home country.
As the process wore on, I still needed to make a few stops around town signing up for membership with PhilHealth and getting some documents notarized as part of my OWWA registration requirements. In those short moments of zipping around town in the back of an HPV, I had a glimpse of Bacolod.
If you've been to downtown Manila in the 80s, particularly the Carriedo area, then you would know what Bacolod looks like. Short buildings reminiscent of Imelda driven architecture, typical of the Banko Sentral and the Cultural Center of the Philippines on Roxas Avenue. The plazas are wide, simple, and adorned with all the regular park features. Even traffic is reminiscent of a previous time, but maybe not as far back as the 80s, the 90s would be a better benchmark I think. There was enough cars to cause a slight traffic, but not enough to cause the jams you see all over Manila today.
Apart form the look of it, the people of Bacolod were unerringly pleasant and I just can't get over how polite everyone is. It made me feel like I can walk through the city and not worry about being snatched off the streets or accosted.
Before long, I finally had all I needed from the POEA and on my way to the hotel again. I didn't see enough of Bacolod to know its treasures but I saw enough to want to come back some day soon and give it justice.
sayang kulang pictures of Bacolod :) we plan to go to Davao for a summer weekend...first time for kids to ride airplane kaya super excited na :)
ReplyDeleteSuper! Mini J finally gets his wish to ride a plane :D will be waiting for all the pics!
ReplyDeleteJust noticed this post is coming up when people search for the OWWA process in Bacolod so I thought I'd add the actual steps to the process to help out -
ReplyDelete1. Bring all your documents to the POEA office (employment contract, passport, 2x2 pics, work visa, and photocopies)
2. Fill out a form once there, if your contract does not clearly include a repatriation clause, you will be made to fill out an affidavit that in case of death someone else (usually family) will handle your repatriation.
3. This affidavit needs to be notarized (try the 2nd flr of the shopping arcade in the main plaza @ PHP 50 per copy)
4. sign up and pay for your phil health membership (this is not located in the same POEA bldg)
5. return to the POEA bldg with your notarized affidavit and philhealth docs, then pay your fees (approx PHP 6k per person)
6. if this is your first time doing this and have never been overseas to work, you might be asked to sit through the PDOS video/seminar which is only done twice a day so check the schedule!
Voila, POEA done without all the queues and heartache of doing it in Ortigas.