NBI Clearance Quality Control

• A Third Trip to the NBI
  • When you are applying for an NBI clearance, it is possible that there are other people with the same name as yours might have committed a crime. If such a person exists, you will automatically get flagged, which is what the NBI refer to as a "hit". I've had an NBI "hit" before, but after a week, I usually just come back to the NBI satellite office and pick up my NBI clearance from their Releasing Department without any trouble at all.
  • But this was the first time I've been asked to come back a third time for an appointment with the NBI. And instead of simply going to their satellite office, they asked me to go to their Quality Control Department in Victory Center Mall, Caloocan City.
• Getting to Victory Central Mall - Caloocan
  • If you are from the Quezon City area, you can take either a bus from Trinoma going to Monumento. From the Monumento Rotunda, the one with Bonifacio's statue, you can talk a long walk going to Victory Central Mall. The NBI offices are located at the 5th level and you might have to take the escalators, or 5 flights of stairs, since elevators are only operational during mall hours. (You typically want to come early so that you can finish early.)
  • An alternative to going there would be by MRT, but from Trinoma, you might have to take a short bus ride to the area after SM North Annex / near Wal-Mart, where the first MRT station with a train going to Monumento is located. The station at Monumento is nearer Victory Center Mall.
• The Quality Control Area - Bring A Lot of Patience
  • If you are not they type of person who likes to read instructions, and instead, asks questions immediately, then prepare to face the wrath of the NBI Quality Control Area. They really dislike being asked questions since they are the ones who are supposed to do the interviewing and questioning. So just follow the instructions on the walls (like writing your full name on the receipt and dropping it in the drop box, then wait for your name to be called).
  • I was fortunate enough to have a "wrong IC" case, wherein the name that was associated with the crime was very different from my name. Even the address and other info about the criminal hardly matched any of mine. So instead of being grilled by the interviewer, I was asked to go to a different area to sort out the misunderstanding.
• Natty Abibas - an example of excellent Government Service
  • Despite the stereotypical perception of Philippine government employees as impatient and corrupt, once in a while, you will find a diamond in the rough. I am fortunate enough to have been helped by Miss Natty Abibas who immediately recognized the NBI's mistake and gave me clear cut instructions on how to resolve the problem so that I could obtain my clearance the same day. She was very patient and had a friendly personality. Contrast this to another employee who was outright mean (one shouted "Matuto po kayong mag-basa!!!" - translated as "Learn to read!!!") and showed you that they were only on the job for the pay, not to serve.
  • Perhaps Miss Abibas was also trying to save face for the NBI, since my having to go there was their mistake. She explained that system errors have a statistical occurrence of roughly 1%. The system matched my surname with the criminal's. I wonder if the NBI's computer system's should be modified so that a full name, age, and address match has to occur before a person is flagged. This can prevent people from experiencing additional hassles in order to clear their name.
• At Least The NBI Caloocan Office Seems to be Less Corrupt
  • Contrast this with the NBI Quezon City office were fixers still hover about despite the Anti-Fixer Streamers posted on the walls. And which fixer in his right mind would give you his name and personal information. He would probably lie and deny outright that he approached you. Maybe Mr. Tulfo should do an expose to catch these crooks and the government employees aiding or benefiting from them.
  • Another NBI Quezon City "racket" is asking for 3 pesos to process your receipt at the releasing window. This is a "finding fee" to locate whether or not your clearance had no problems. There was no "finding fee" in Caloocan. Why didn't the NBI simply add this fee to the receipt if it were a proper fee? Whoever imposed this fee is earning big non-taxable revenue. If 10,000 people were processed in a day, that's a daily revenue of 30,000 pesos, or a monthly revenue of about 660,000 pesos.
  • Alas, there is a business practice in Caloocan similar to one in Quezon City. In Caloocan, there is a vendor selling envelopes for your NBI clearance priced at 5 pesos. Again, a non-taxable revenue stream potentially backed by NBI officials. Considering that the price of a typical short brown envelope is only 2 pesos, then something half as small should not be outrageously priced simply because of a geographic monopoly. Quezon City has tissue paper / wet naps priced at 5 pesos - used to wipe your thumb after they apply the fingerprint on your NBI clearance. Again, this amounts to about 660,000 pesos in monthly revenue if we assume that the cost of the wet nap is about 2 pesos per piece. The person applying your finger print makes you feel that buying the wet nap is mandatory if you are to avail of his supposedly "free" service. Who needs assistance in finger-printing anyway? If they left the ink on the tables, people would do just fine applying their own fingerprints on their own clearance.

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