When we attended the required pre-departure seminar conducted by the CFO, we were told that government employees need to secure a clearance from office so that they wud be allowed to leave the country. To make sure, i asked the speaker if there are other requirements, he said there is none. Also, in the list of required documents given to us by the embassy, only the clearance was included in d list. Then, this afternoon, when i presented my passport at d immigration officer as a last step of d pre-departure process, i was asked if im a government employee, which i answered with a yes. The immigration officer asked for my clearance, then asked for d authority to travel afterwards. I explained that the only requirement that ive been told was d clearance. But still i wasnt allowed to fly until i secure d said document. An immigration officer said i shud have asked the proper authorities (is d CFO officer not a proper authority, wen filipino immigrants r not allowed to leave without their seal?). Another said dat my office was at fault, coz they must know dat they shud issue such document together with d clearance. Another said dat as a government employee i shud know dat since its part of my obligations. Instead of finding someone to blame or continue arguing with d officer, i tried to secure such document With the help of our very active and caring college secretary kuya Vincent Cabantoc and with the understanding of the people in our university, i was able to secure the said Authority to Travel sent thru fax. Was cleared from the immigration - about 2 minutes after the boarding gate has been closed :( Has talked to d people from d airline to allow us to board, since the plane has not taken off yet, but unfortunately we were not allowed to fly, which also means they had to unload our baggage from d plane, that has taken them more than 30 mins to do [kon gnpasakay nala kmi less than 10 mins ira macoconsume ;)] Plus they unloaded d wrong boxes (owned by my cousin & nephew who had checked-in together with us), so i have to make a new list (required by d bureau of customs) of all d things inside these boxes. After a roller-coaster of emotions, a hug from hubby with a whisper saying its ok, well just rebook our flight has made me calm down and say with a smile, yeah, its ok. Everything happens for a reason ;) Though its still uncertain when are we going to finally fly, im now at peace coz i know dat our God will fix everything for us. I thank all the angels dat He has sent and will be sending to make us through, from kuya Vince who has furnish my lacking document, to the airport personnel who has helped us in re-packing our baggage(to make d 6 boxes wrongfully unloaded turned into 4 coz datz d only allowed baggage we will have), to another personnel who assisted us in finding a nearby hotel, to my cousins kuya Al and kuya Archie Aban Nacional who will help us rebook our ticket. God has never promised that it wud be easy, but we will hold to His promise dat Hell be with us all throughout ;) #newjourney #firstmajortrial #butstillfulloffaithandpositiveoutlook
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:16:04 +0000