Driving (Legally)

Shelly has been, I regret to inform you, driving around the Philippines without the proper documentation. She ran out of time before leaving Maryland to get an international license, and used up her 21-day driving grace period weeks ago.

But I'm happy to announce that, as of last week, she is now legal.

When her visa was finally processed last week, we headed out last Thursday morning to get Shelly a license. You can't get a license until you have a visa, but it's taken almost three months to get her visa. You can only drive legally without a Philippine or international license for 21 days after your arrival, which is how she ended up driving illegally for all these weeks. (And me? I did not get a Philippine license on our Thursday trip because I don't yet have a visa, but I did pick up an international license before leaving home and can, therefore, drive for a year until the license expires.)

***

The driver's license office is in a dark wing of a mall that has seen better days. Most of the stores are closed, but the corridors of the mall are jammed with kiosks selling everything from dodgy cell phones to pirated DVDs. There's a Jollibee, a Shakey's Pizza and a couple of other small restaurants, but the escalators don't work, and most of the lights in the mall have been switched off. I'm glad we have Bobby along to navigate.

We fight our way through the masses, past row after row of chairs of people, snacking, dozing, chatting, but mostly waiting, and find ourselves negotiating with a fixer, someone who will help speed up the process for us. Using a fixer, despite prominent signs forbidding them, is essential, as it's just a few minutes before noon and it seems the office closes at noon so everyone can take lunch at the same time.

Our fixer, a tall, lanky man wearing a blue t-shirt, finds a clerk who will let us start the paperwork, even though it's 11:55. But first, we need photocopies of Shelly's license, passport and visa. No problem, says Bobby, because one of the kiosks in the corridor sells 2 peso (US$0.04) photocopies. Shelly fills out her paperwork and presents them with her photocopies, and the fixer, the clerk and Bobby begin a lengthy negotiation in Tagalog. Bobby is trying to get the clerk to waive the required drug test, but it seems that can't be done today.

The fixer leads us around the corner to one of several medical offices. Bobby pulls me aside and, in hushed tones, explains what's going on:

"You have a choice," he says. "You can wait until later this afternoon, or maybe until tomorrow. Or, for a fee, you can have faster service."

"How much do we need to pay for the faster service?" I ask, glad again that he's here to help us.

"They wanted 4,000 pesos (US$80), but I got them to take 2,500 pesos ($US50). Is that okay?"

Not wanting to spend the day at the driver's license office, much less return tomorrow, we quickly agree, and I dig through my wallet to come up with the cash.

Meanwhile, Shelly returns from the small bathroom and hands her sample to the nurse. The bathroom is dirty, the specimen cup was reused and it was, well, difficult for a woman to aim into the cup's small opening. There's no sink in the bathroom, so she washes her hands in sink in the waiting area. Shelly shells out P450 for the drug test, and five minutes later we're on our way to the vision test, which she quickly passes.

There are just two steps left, Bobby says: having Shelly's photo taken for her license, and then waiting for the license itself to appear. The rest of it "will be taken care of."

We leave Bobby behind as we head out to do some Christmas shopping, only to be called back 20 minutes later. The photograph hadn't worked, and Shelly needed to return for a second one. That taken, we're both ready to head for home. Bobby offers to remain behind to wait for the license and deliver it to Shelly at work on Friday. We quickly agree, glad to be on our way out of the mall.

***

After our lengthy, expensive experience, I'm not sure that I'll be getting a driver's license anytime soon, though it would make a cool souvenir. But, all in, it ended up costing something like $65, and for something I don't need, that's a lot of money.