Just another story

The woman on my right is known by Aurea Sisneros living in Manila.
I was referee to this lady prior to my arrival in the philoppines! I was informed by my good friend that she was immigration officer and she would sort out my permanent visa.
Well I contacted her front NZ months prior to my leaving for the Philippines.
On my arrival in Manila she visited me in my hotel restaurant, produced to me what certainly looked an official government I'd card.
So she promptly took on my application produced me with other official looking paperwork that we duly completed.
On our next meeting we actually met in the building of immigration where we duly did some more documentation.
She left me there went off and come back soon after.
Prior to our departure she told me that I need not come to immigration anymore as she has to pass my hotel everything can be done there as she is an official of the immigration.
Well we did that in the 7 weeks that I stayed in Makati.
After my leaving and believing all was in order and will be finalised in due course, I found a very lack of communication and not answering my calls. Got me a little anxious!
Well to cut a long story short it was all a scam! YES A SCAM.
sh*t I was taken in good style normally I am so cautious after spending 24 years in the forces.
I find out that she is what they call fixers over here. Totally illegal! !
Well I was caught don't let the next person be you or anyone you know. This cost me 100.000.00 + php never returned. Why because if I pursue this through whatever department they will do nothing to help because it is a illegal process.
Please feel free to post this wherever you wish, these sort of practises must stop.

 

Its not just immigration though or LTO but virtually every government connected office has fixers be it getting a business license, getting a firearms license (didn't you hear after all a foreigner with firearms license already is 100% safe! hahaha), getting an annulment, or anything else. It doesn't protect you should they ever look over the stuff and see its not legit or had been fixed. Saying you didn't know is NOT an excuse to them or that the person seemed legit. Its not even an excuse if the fixer actually even worked for the office in question and was a genuine employee.

Simple rule of thumb, if anyone says they can take care of it real quick even if they say or don't say about its likely an illegal fixer. The Philippine government no matter what office is extremely slow, extremely annoying, and makes no sense. If what your doing seems fast, not so annoying, and makes sense.... it is NOT legit.

I've even been told by a government worker (forget what permit office though) and another foreigner that they knew the right people who could get me a firearm permit as a foreigner and both swore that if I had the permit granted it would fully protect me from the police or anyone questioning how me as a foreigner have it. I wasn't gullible though and laughed them off but to many suckers out there.

 

Its a worry that the guy that lost the 100th was the fastest swimmer

 

Ain't that the d*mn truth. Getting most anything done here paperwork wise is a PITA if done correctly and legally. I recommend everyone do everything themselves and use no fixers whatsoever. Once you have you will know how to do everything and save yourself quite a bit of money and the fixers will find themselves out of work!

Unfortunately most foreigners are looking for an angle or quick fix to accomplish whatever it is they want to accomplish hence the niche' market for fixers!

Example: Fixer gets you drivers license = P5000 or about $125. Do it yourself and it costs less than P1000 or about $20 dollars. Times that by how many people use fixers (Thousands) just to get a PI drivers license and it can be quite lucrative for fixers to do what foreigners don't have the patience to do themselves. That is just one example for Angeles City Pampanga. Prices will probably vary by market and province.

 

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

The whole country is run on corruption and greasing palms. I realised this the first time I came here 29 years ago, and little has changed in the intervening period.

 

In some cases though there is no other way BUT to pay a fixer to get something done.

Example, LTO. Go to LTO to get a driver's license the proper way. At a point you need to go through a seminar done in Filipino (most of us don't understand Filipino). They tell us just to pay 500p and no worries on sitting through it. But if you do sit through it come the end there is a test which from what I hear is rarely ever done and virtually impossible for most to pass for most. Instead of the test they tell you just pay 500p and there is no test, just the seminar you showed up for at 9am.

You think that is the legal way? Of course not, its just another form of a fixer. Pay the fee and you got your license. I have even seen times when they wouldn't let someone ever take the test and just said 500p stating that there was no way to pass the written test.

Now also, how many of us went to get our driver's license yet never did a physical driving test yet our license doesn't say for motorcycle only but allows us to drive everything. That isn't how its supposed to be. But hey, you paid your 500p fee for the testing part of the written exam to be skipped which just happens to ignore a driving test and give a person who probably has never sat behind a wheel of a car a license for driving any sort of 2, 4, 6, 0r 8 wheeled vehicle non commercial.