So there was this discrepancy between my father's name on the baptismal certificate and all other documents. It's always been "Pedro" and for some reason, "Peter" was written on the baptismal certificate. Clerical error? Exoticism (this was 1984)? Nevertheless, it's causing me a little bit of grief now.
8 days til the big day and I'm still on the merry-go-round.
At first, the parish where I was baptised told us to obtain an Affidavit of Discrepancy and a Form 137 in addition to all the other documents (Birth Certificate, original Baptismal Certificate, etc.)
Side story: We wondered why they needed the Form 137. When asked, what we got as a reply was a shrug, "No idea." lulz. The Form 137 is only needed for when my name does not match the Baptismal Certificate...not my father's name.
Anyway, off we went to a lawyer to get the AoD done. I inquired to a few law firms close to Eastwood where we were staying. I was quoted P3000.00 and this one law firm promised to ring/text back the date/time of our meeting so we can get it done. We looked for another and got a referral from my Auntie Beth.
Atty. Luch Gempis worked for the Vice Mayor at Manila City Hall. We went there at 10 in the morning and when he appeared, we spent about an hour poring over the documents and then typing up the AoD, had it notarised and voila! That should be the end of it, right? Right...
We had lunch as everyone has lunch from 11 am to 1:30 pm (sometimes until 2:00 pm as in the case of Manila Cathedral pplz...again lulz).
After lunch, off I went to where I was baptised and submitted their requested documents. The guy, Mr. Joerly (sp.) told me to go to the chancery office at Cubao. zomg! He told me that they'd be handing me an envelope which I should then pass back to them. (Has anyone here heard of fax/email? Apparently not!) Anyway, like a sheep, I went to the chancery in front of the Immaculate Conception in Cubao (New York cor. Lantana) and was told that I needed more documents!! Namely, a recent Certificate of Live Birth and a Marriage Certificate from the National Statistics Office. I showed the lady, Ms. Jovy, the documents that I had with me (Birth cert obtained January 09 and my parent's Marriage cert obtained quite a while back - 2000) to which she promptly told me to go get a recent one. She wouldn't accept the original Marriage Certificate which my parents signed on their wedding date. It was brown and in tatters. How original can you get? Apparently, they only wanted copies to keep with them. Originals won't suffice and they wouldn't attest to having seen the original and declaring the copies valid. (Uh, it's right in front of you?)
Anyway, I went to NSO straight away and applied to obtain a copy of my parent's Marriage cert and was told to come back the next day. I commend their currently existing system as it was hassle-free as compared to a decade or two ago. The instruction banners were huge (ie Step 1, Step 2, etc) and all one had to do was go to where the banners pointed you to and did what was needed to do on that area. After payment (which was step 3), it would take them a day to print out a document that existed in their computers which should just take seconds to "search" (anyone heard of the search button? or maybe their software didn't have one as their system was designed for maximum sakit sa ulo!)
The next day, I went to NSO and obtained the needed document at Window 4. The lady was a bit cranky serving one after the other even before the just-served person hadn't yet left the counter. Oh well. I got what I wanted, off to the chancery!
As I mentioned before, they have lunch at 11 am and I got to there at 11:30 and hence I must wait til 1:30 pm. So I looked for the closest computer shop, so here I am typing this blog entry to pass the time and update you, my dear readers, on what we've been up to on the lead-up to the Big Day!
Hopefully, this is the end of it, so wish me luck! We should be resting...really.
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