Claiming My National ID After Almost 4 Years

When people tell me how hard it is to have an Identification Card here in the Philippines, I felt that when I was claiming my National ID recently. There's a lot of valid ID Cards but in order for us to have one, we need first to present 2 valid IDs prior from applying to any of it. It sounds insane but it's a fact that anyone could experience in the Philippines. No matter how difficult the process could be, you needed those IDs to live freely anywhere in the country or if you have plans abroad.

Out of all those IDs, there's one ID which is the most important and that is our National ID. It was implemented years ago but I haven't got one until recently since I couldn't go home then due to COVID restrictions. I registered right away when I was able to travel way back 2022. Since then, I waited patiently for it to be delivered but I haven't received any single text, email or call notifying me that it would be receiving it sooner.

When I got few days free this time, I headed to the Post Office to track down the ID since it was ages ago already when I registered for this. It's already almost 4 years ago when I did it at SM City Bacolod. Few years have passed now, I'm still hoping that I could have it on hand.

The sun was scorching hot since it's almost noon. Usually, I wouldn't go out at this weather but since this might be the only free time I will be having this month, I took advantage of it.

Gladly, there wasn't much people in the post office. I was alone having transaction with the officer. Unfortunately, I needed to wait for a few more minutes because they were fixing their internet connection and they couldn't track offline where my ID was sent back. When their connection was restored, they wrote a few remarks on my tracking slip and advised me to claim my National ID at the Philippine Statistics Office (PSO).

Why can't the government place all of their offices in one place? I have to ride a jeepney on a different route going East just to get there and it took me 10 to 15 mins, depending on how heavy the traffic is.

I was just thankful that they have a separate office for this. Their office for PSA certificates is on the other side and it's always crowded with people from different cities.

Their staff were very accommodating. I didn't even have to queue in line. They just took my tracking slip and told me to wait. It took them 30 mins already and I didn't see any of the staff reaching out to me yet, so I went inside to check on the status of my ID.

As it turned out, they're having a difficulty looking for my ID out of a pile of documents per barangay stored in their branch. They also confessed that the released printed IDs were still those who registered from 2021 and 2022, and the rest to the recent year isn't still available yet. The office is only providing a printed slip as a temporary ID for those who wants a copy.

Imagine waiting for years just to get the most important ID. I'm really wondering why most of the government processes are often that slow. It's kinda frustrating at times but the only choice we have is to bear with it for now and hope for further improvements.

Well, after almost 4 years of waiting, there I have it finally. It turns out that records said that they attempted to deliver it on my previous address way back 2024 but no one received it, that's why it was sent back to the main office on the city.

I wanted to explode at that moment to defend myself because they're not notifying me ahead for the delivery time. But anyways, it's not worth my stress, so I went ahead and traveled back home just being thankful at least that I finally have it on me.