I went to Philhealth Cebu City branch last October 2, 2009. I need to change my membership category because I’m no longer working but would still want to continue the membership with the company. I first went to the information section to ask for the necessary step in changing the membership category. I must say that I admired the ladies in the information section because they are pleasant in answering my queries and have given me all the details needed to accomplish you plight. The lady who attended my concern gave me the form to fill up and two priority number, one for membership section and the other is for the cashier because I want to pay my contribution right there and then. The lady said that the payment is still open before the end of the year. My number for membership is 1199 and 1240 for the cashier. Lady said that I need to go to membership first to change the membership category before I can process the payment. I can just tell the cashier that I came from membership section in case my number already passed.

I went to membership section and found out that I need to wait 98 numbers to pass before it will be my turn. Sad to say there aren’t enough seats and space for everybody waiting for their turn. I must say that for me the office is not enough to cater all of their members. I believe they need to have enough space for everybody just like the space in Pag-ibig office. I waited for an hour and a half before I was entertained in the membership section because there are only two people catering all the transactions that fall under membership. I just waited for 10 minutes for releasing to be able to release my updated Philhealth papers and 5 minutes to complete the payment.

From this experience I could see a lot of people standing like pregnant women for hours waiting for their turn and the office is quite crowded because it’s not that organized. If only there are enough space and seats for everybody.

I visited Pag-ibig Fund Cebu City office last Friday, October 2, 2009 to see what can be done for those who are not working anymore but still want to continue the contribution. When I entered the office, it’s quite amazing how big their office is and you can see there is enough space for everybody. I must add that it’s not crowded as well. I first went to the information section to ask for the necessary things that I need to do. While waiting for my turn, I was able to check that at the side of the lane, there are booklets available for the members to read and keep a copy for feature purposes. Of course, I keep the copy for myself to read. The person in-charge directed me to membership regarding my concern and gave me my priority number.

I seated near counter 1 which is for payment. I was able to check that they have this board that contains the five sections which is short term loan, membership, claims, payments, and check releasing. Beside those sections are the numbers and counter entertaining the members. Personally, I think this is the reason why the office is not crowded aside from having enough space for everybody. Catering all the needs of the members is well organized and the board helps a lot in achieving this.

Although, membership among the five sections, takes time it’s because they have allocated people who are capable of answering and knows inside out of the policies, terms and condition to be able to answer queries from the members. It helps a lot that every government offices have this service to guide each of the members. Because of this, I had an answer to my question regarding voluntary paying the contribution. According to the lady I spoke with, if you want to be categorized as voluntary payor, you cannot loan for any housing project but you also have option to go for self-employed but would need necessary document such as business permit and other document that would support your claim as self-employed.

All in all I like the service I received in Pag-ibig than the rest that I went to like SSS and Philhealth.

Last Friday October 2, 2009, I went to SSS Cebu City branch to do all the necessary paper works and transactions. I am no longer working and would like to still continue paying the contribution. I first went to the information counter to ask my first step. I waited for like 5 minutes before I could ask my queries because there are also people falling in line. The person in-charge gave me the RS-5 or the Contribution Payment Return form. He said to fill up the necessary information and I need to go to the second floor to pay my contribution. The amount would be Php 312.00 per month and I would be under voluntary payor.

I went to the second floor of the building but still have a lot of questions in my mind. I wanted to be under the self-employed bracket and would still want to ask a lot of questions. Because the answer did to suffice me, I want back to the information counter and fall back in line. Here comes my turn again but it will just give you like about 3 minutes to talk because there are also a lot of people waiting for their turn. I asked the requirements to be able to be under the self-employed payor but the person in-charge said that I would be under voluntary and just forget about self-employment. Even though the answer did not suffice me, I filled up the form and went to second floor to pay my 3 months contribution. I asked for the priority number from the security guard assigned on the floor. It was good that there are a lot of tellers available to receive the payment; hence it did not take that long to pay my contribution.

I went back to the first floor to read some poster thinking I can find answers to my questions. I am getting married next year and my fiancé would like to borrow some money for our wedding. Since I cannot find the answer on the posters, I decided to go back to the information counter to ask what are the necessary requirements and different loans to avail. As expected, I did not get the answer to my question and he just refers me to the form section to ask for the loans form and at the back of it is the necessary information needed. Yes, there is information at the back of the form but it doesn’t give us all the options and loans available. I went to visit their website and was able to find answers to some of my questions.

Personally, I think it would be best that they will have their own dedicated person who knows the policy, terms and condition as well as benefits inside out. Their main objective then would be to cater all the questions and clarify things out to their contributors especially those that are on the middle and lower sector of the society. Although they have a website which has a lot of information, but what about those that do not have internet connection and does not have the capacity to do so. It plays a vital role in the success of the company the harmonious understanding and delivering the right information and to answer all queries of your members.