Nang humingi ang National Bureau of Investigation(NBI) ng kulang-kulang P1 bilyong pisong budget para sa taong ito, P940 million to be exact, nangako itong i-proseso ang NBI clearance sa loob lamang ng 10 minuto.

This is the promissory note it issued to the Congress and to the public – that in exchange for receiving this amount, it will process half of the 5,354,000 clearance applications it will receive this year within 10 minutes.

And this promise is now part of the law. Let me quote the pertinent line in Page 444 of RA 10633 or the General Appropriations Act for 2014 :

“Percentage of applications processed within 10 minutes of receipt : 50 percent”

In other words, NBI is telling us that it you arrive at our office asking for a clearance, you will be gone in 600 seconds.

The NBI was probably confident of giving quick service that it issued another performance vow, that 50 percent of its clearance clients would rate its service as “satisfactory”.

Admittedly, it is too early to judge if the NBI can deliver on its promise, despite predictions by those who had experienced queuing before dawn at its headquarters that it won’t.

I sincerely hope that whatever delays in the processing of clearance at this stage are birth pains associated with the new system it is implementing because lining up from sunrise to sunset in getting a government document must never be allowed to become the new normal.

Kawawa naman si Juan de la Cruz kung dalawang oras na nga s’ya pipila sa MRT at LRT, buong araw pa s’yang pipila sa NBI.

Ako’y lubos na umaasa na panandalian lamang ito. After assuring us that this is temporary, we should grant Secretary de Lima’s appeal to bear the temporary inconvenience. But the NBI should realize that any reprieve the public might give will be very, very short.

This year, NBI will earn P545million from the issuance of clearances, income it should reinvest in making the long lines disappear. In addition to its promise of a 10-minute processing time of clearances, it has also pledged that 86% percent of the cases it will investigate will be completed within one year.

In the meantime, the following can bedone to address the gridlock at NBI :

1. Ask employers to waive, or at least suspend, the submission of NBI clearance by applicants or employees not holding sensitive positions
2. Fast-track the procurement of computer hardware needed by regional, satellite and field offices for issuing clearances but still compliant with all government procurement, accounting and audit laws.