Legal docs? Maya na

Birth certificates of any kind are null and void unless issued by the NSO. This means the almost faded, creased, yellow-from-time Xeroxed copy most people have in their personal file should be Xeroxed by NSO on a yellow NSO paper.

I recently got my "official" birth certificate at the NSO Serbilis center in about a total of 5 hours or thereabouts. But that 5 hours took two days, (released the next day) of which 99.9% of the time is spent waiting in line. In fairness, the line was constantly moving and there was no lunch break. I couldn’t believe the many people applying for birth certificates, which was the longest line. All these people in Manila do not have official birth certificates. Imagine that.

While in line and bored to curiosity, I noticed there were also applications for marriage certificates, and, dig this, certificate of non-marriage. Whyever in the world would you need a certificate to announce single-blessedness? Annulment? Why can’t the ex couple just present the annulment papers? Apparently, for legal purposes, they need a certification. Like a certificate that one has been born, gotten married. Why not issue a “turned 18 certificate”, heck, why not issue a “given birth or fathered ten kids” certificate? But I digress.

Point is, why do we have to wait for the papers? Can’t we get the birth certificate as we leave the hospital after giving birth since we are going away with the baby who owns the certificate? Or if attended by midwives, can’t they have connections and affiliations in barangay health centers to enable them to process or give proof that Winston Miguel has been born? Why can’t an annulled couple get a certificate to prove their annulment on the day itself? Even during marriages, why can’t the official papers be part of the actual ceremony? Is it? Do the couples leave the church or the city hall with the papers? No idea.

I distinctly remember graduations where one is handed a rolled up coupon bond to pass for a diploma. I’m not sure if this is still being done but if it is, why does it need “some time”? The whole school knows the graduating batch upon enrolment. They have about 10 months to type in the names over the pre-designed diploma. Now if a student will not graduate after all, just don’t print the diploma. How hard can it be? How long can it take in this day and technology? In my time there used to be a date when one goes back to get the classcard, which only gave us an excuse to get together in the middle of summer. So what am I complaining about? When you graduate from student to parent, you transform from beneficiary to injured party of these official document time lapse.

A victim and practicing this "later" or "mamaya na" syndrome, the official document proving I exist is now in my hands after 35 years of breathing this planet's air.