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| Sunday registration was held at Metrobank's office in United Centre |
By Vir B. Lumicao
Over 300 Filipinos beat today's deadline for the filing of application for the first ever civil service examination in Hong Kong for Filipinos.
But at the end of the day, the total tally of 947 applicants was still less than a third of the more than 3,000 who had signified their intention
to take the exam.
The final tally, however, did not include those who registered in Macau, and will also take the examination in Hong Kong.
Labor Attache Jalilo de la Torre said he was a bit upset that the number of registrants was way below expectations.
“A little disappointed but my take is that those who signed didn’t really have the full commitment to take it. In any case, it’s food for thought for next year’s preparations,” Labatt De la Torre said.
POLO was opened on Friday, Nov 11, and Saturday, Nov 12, to accommodate all those who wanted to register.
But Labatt De la Torre said only 27 came on Friday and 50 on Saturday. On the last day of registration on Sunday, 347 went through the process.
He told The SUN he had asked for the registration deadline
to be moved to Nov. 20, but the Civil Service Commission refused.
“I tried extending the deadline to Nov 20 but CSC didn’t
agree because of the printing period for the exam materials,” Labatt De la
Torre said.
The exam will be held on Nov. 27 at two venues: the Hong
Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai and at Delia Memorial School
Hip Wo in Kwun Tong.
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| Applicants sat on floor while filling in the registration form |
The registration on Sunday was held at the Metrobank office
in United Centre in Admiralty, as POLO’s public areas were packed with people
processing their contracts and applying for the overseas employment
certificate.
Before the registration opened at 8am, hundreds had already
lined up, said Metrobank’s remittance manager Fred Valencia. The registration
ended at 5pm.
Many of those who registered were heard complaining that
they were given only little time to complete the registration requirements,
such as copies of their job contracts, Hong Kong IDs, passports and school
certificates.
The applicants were made to fill up registration forms, pay
the Php1,500 exam fee, and submit the required documents. Afterwards, they had
to register online.
Each would-be examinee queued about 30 minutes just to be photographed; much longer to get to the registration desk..
Trisha and her friend Sally told The SUN they lined up for
two hours before they were allowed to take the lift up to Metrobank. When they
got there, about 30 applicants were still waiting for their turn to be served.
“Nakakain lang po kami noong 1:30 na, pero pasalamat kami at
natapos na,” Trisha said.
Friends Hannan and Honey had the same experience. They said the
registrants should have been given more time to prepare their documents because
they could only do so on their day off.
