Visit to two government offices

THIS has become a habit, choosing the Talisay City Extension Office instead of other branches of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for an important transaction. I went there last week without fanfare and, again, with the other purpose of observing the kind of service provided there. The last time I went to that office was in mid-2011.

I prefer going to the Talisay LTO because only few people transact business there, I told a fellow editor. He corrected me. “Daghan ang moanha diha, bay uy, ang uban gikan sa Cebu City, Mandaue. Makita nimo nga morag mingaw ang office tungod kay paspas man ang processing sa transactions. Dako na sila’g kita, bay,” he said.

When I was there, I passed by the office head, Bernard Borromeo Jr., standing near the door of one of the structure’s rooms. I thought he was merely having his “smoking break” at that time. “Dili, bay,” my officemate told me. “Mo- check gyod na siya panagsa sa gawas, iyang tanawon kun wa bay kalangan sa pagproseso. Mao nang morag gamay tanawon ang tawo kay paspas man ang processing.”

I can attest to that because I finished what I did there in less than an hour. Of course, the fact that I am a journalist must have been partly a factor then. While I never introduced myself as being connected with Sun.Star, I could sense that some LTO people eventually recognized me after they pored into the documents I submitted. Even then, comments praising the efficiency of the Talisay LTO are many. I say fast processing of transactions in a government office can be a “fixer-buster.” If people who transact business with, say, LTO find that they are serviced well, they won’t go to fixers to speed up things.

That’s something that Borromeo may have taken to mind when he hatched an effective processing system for his office.

Incidentally, I arrived at the Talisay LTO only a couple of hours after the nearby Robinson’s mall (it shares the same Barangay Lawaan compound with the transportation office) opened. I caught some of the LTO employees counting loose change on the table.

“Angay unta nga ang i- impose nga payments dili kanang magkinahanglan og sin- siyo nga sukli,” Borromeo said. “Lisod kaayo ning magpasensiyo ta kada buntag. Unya kun naay inspection, dili ra ba gusto ang inspector nga magtenir mi og loose change.”

“Naa sad diay mangayog kumpleto nga sukli?” a woman asked. “Naa, uy. Kasagaran senior citizens,” Borromeo answered.

By the way, the Talisay LTO wasn’t the only government office I transacted business with on that day. Because of my shortened time in Lawaan, I was able to proceed to the imposing Talisay City Hall to process a National Statistics Office (NSO) document there. Like in the LTO, the section that handled the LTO services was, I would say, well-oiled.

Not much has changed in the Talisay City Hall. It is still lonely at the front and busy at the back (the front door is rarely used by those who transact business there). I really don’t know why Mayor Socrates Fernandez likes this setup. Because of it, people who see the City Hall from the Cebu South Coastal Road are given the impression that the structure is deserted even during office days.

Fernandez, or even Rep. Eduardo Gullas, who is most likely the next Talisay City mayor, should find ways to make the front area of the City Hall more productive, especially with a beautiful plaza already built near it.