Public Service Bureau

Today I went to the Public Service Bureau (PSB) to apply for my residence permit. This is the last step of the immigration procedure :) I was supposed to meet the lady from Fragomen at 1:30pm there. 1:30pm no one. I call and she tells me she is stuck in the traffic and should be there shortly. 1 hour and 3 phone calls later she finally arrived. She apologized saying she had to deal with an emergency. I still wonder why she couldn't tell me the truth when I called before leaving the office. I don't real fancy wasting 1 hour of my time...
Once she got there, we went to the desk where I was supposed to have my interview. Actually there was no interview. All they wanted was to see my face and get me to sign a paper. Then the fun started. On Sunday I'm supposed to fly to Manila. Therefore I need my passport back latest on Friday. Fragomen tells me it's going to be ready on Monday morning. Monday morning, Friday afternoon, same thing for me. So I asked to get it Friday. Fragomen says no. I cannot change the rules from the government. I said fine. I will ask the government myself. And there she panicked. No way I can talk to the government myself. She put her boss on the phone to explain to me that I can't and that anyway most likely that agent can't decide. Fair enough, let me talk to the agent's boss. Even worse! They really freaked out. But by insisting long and hard enough, they said it would be ready by Friday, that they will ask for an exception :)
Like everywhere else when it comes to administrative matters, there is always a way around. Now keep you fingers crossed for Friday.