Expat Community > Philippines

BertelBertelsen
Joined 2016
Posts: 251

Don’t buy your driver license!

8 years ago

One of the most fun things I did in regards to dealing with officials was getting my Philippines driver license. I did that because if I wanted to use my European license here I had to go to the embassy in Manila. Over there they make an official translation and you can use that to go to the LTO and follow the rest of the steps. But I did not want to go to Manila so I opted to go to the local Lto(land transport office).
Outside of the building there were a lot of people offering help to me. The prices were outrageous. The cheapest help was from somebody that offered a license for 4.500 pesos. That is almost 90 euro so I said no and went inside. The LTO office in Davao is not a classy place. The waiting area is not even in a building so it gets pretty hot over there.
First you have to show that you have all the right paperwork. At that moment somebody of the LTO will offer you that you can cut in line for a fee of course. But I wanted to do it without help and see how far I would come without a bribe.
And so the long wait began. Which was not so bad cause pinoy are very interested in foreigners. I had a lot of different conversations about life, work, and my girlfriend. When they found out she was pregnant they said, bring her the next time because you can cut in line without bribing. Shortly after that there was a big brown out, the computers were not working any more so I decided to go home.
The next day I brought my 6 months pregnant girlfriend with me. And everything started to go faster because she was there with me. I would suggest you take somebody with you that is or pregnant, or old or disabled. They can cut in almost every line and it will really speed up the process. What my girlfriend did is be visual the whole time, rubbing her belly, looking a bit tired. So the clerks really did their best to speed up the process for us.
And meanwhile, with every step closer to my goal, the price that the fixer was offering for his help was dropping. And he was getting also more anxious and trying to get me scared by saying that the written exam is very difficult and that for 2000 peso he makes sure I will pass it. I smiled at him, I have read the books on the exam and most of it was pretty straight forward. So I said, I will take my chances and if I fail I will take him up on his offer.
And my god, the exam was more than simple. The exam room was plastered with posters with the explanation of every sign. And most of the signs are universal so I did not need that much help. The questions were all in this style: You are approaching a crossing. What do you do?
a. You speed up and start honking your horn.
b. You start signaling with your lights that you want right of way.
c. You slow down, look in your mirrors and look what the other traffic is about to do. And you anticipate on that.

And geez, what is the right answer? All the questions were like that. So I passed with flying colours.

After that we had to watch a video taken from all the traffic cams hanging through the city. A lot of accidents were shown. I was watching it with lots of empathy while lots of people surrounding me were laughing their ass off and meanwhile sharing good accident stories with each other. Weird experience it was.

The last test was the physical driving test. I had to sit in the car, start it. Drive on a straight line 10 meters front. Then back up 10 meters in a straight line. Passed it of course with flying colors. Total cost of this whole process was 700 pesos and a couple of angry looks of the people that wanted to charge me 4.500 pesos. They right away gave me a temporary license and three months later I had my plastic license.

P.s. People over here see traffic rules not as rules but as mere recommendations on what to do.

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SJB Global is a top-rated financial advisory firm specializing in expat financial advice worldwide, offering retirement planning & tax-efficient solutions with a regressive fee model.
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SJB Global

SJB Global is a top-rated financial advisory firm specializing in expat financial advice worldwide, offering retirement planning & tax-efficient solutions with a regressive fee model.
Learn More

SJB Global

SJB Global is a top-rated financial advisory firm specializing in expat financial advice worldwide, offering retirement planning & tax-efficient solutions with a regressive fee model.
Learn More

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Expat Community > Philippines

Don’t buy your driver license!

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