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The mayor of Manila, Joseph Estrada (who incidentally served a term as president of the Philippines before being impeached and imprisoned for embezzlement) has launched a massive crackdown on the illegal document trade. It always starts so innocently like this, but you never know where itРІР‚в„ўs going to lead,РІР‚в„ў says one of them, looking me up and down, then straight in the eye. РІР‚ВThank you for inviting us to lunch, but I hope youРІР‚в„ўre not an undercover police spy. Her colleagues appear sceptical, warily picking at the skins of their pork buns and keeping their distance. I meet my agent, and we repair to a nearby noodle shop with two other agents while we wait for my documents to arrive. The craftsmanship here is really good,РІР‚в„ў she explains, inspecting the dry-embossed seal. ItРІР‚в„ўs cheaper than getting it through my university. РІР‚ВItРІР‚в„ўs just for her wall, I figured it would be okay.

Fake receipts professional#

There is, for example, the young professional who ordered a duplicate of her original college diploma for her mother to frame. RectoРІР‚в„ўs customers are surprisingly diverse, however, and not all of them are attempting to evade the law. РІР‚ВMy family depends on the cash I bring in every day.РІР‚в„ў He had copies of his driving licence made so that if a policeman confiscates it (a fairly common occurrence) he can still have the real one safely stowed away, as well as several backups.

Fake receipts driver#

The Р“Сљber driver taking me back to Recto to pick up my documents is another case in point. For a contingent of prospective but underqualified foreign migrant workers, buying a spurious seamanРІР‚в„ўs book or a falsified school transcript from Recto is like buying a lottery ticket with higher earnings as the prize. Sometimes, however, itРІР‚в„ўs a matter of desperation. In Recto, all this can be ready in an hour or less.

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It generally takes about a week to obtain a copy of oneРІР‚в„ўs diploma for employment purposes, up to two weeks to get a birth certificate from the National Statistics Office, and a full day of queues, forms, a mandatory medical examination and road test to get a driving licence from the Land Transportation Office. Time is also a consideration, and state agencies would do well to learn from RectoРІР‚в„ўs customer-focused operation and fine-tuned efficiency. Obtaining a marriage annulment certificate here, in the last country in the world where divorce is illegal, can cost up to a quarter of a million pesos (РІвЂљВ¬4,980 or US$5,640), even without factoring in the cost of missing work to attend months (sometimes years) of hearings and legal procedures. With the Philippine average annual income hovering around РІвЂљВ±140,000 (РІвЂљВ¬2,800 or US$3,160), every peso saved counts, and the money saved by opting for the counterfeit document is equivalent to at least a hearty lunch or a tall Starbucks latte. But for as little as РІвЂљВ±5, one can buy a forgery printed on an actual official form stolen from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

For instance, obtaining a sedula (a community tax certificate that also serves as a legal form of identification) involves declaring oneРІР‚в„ўs gross annual income, from which the government levies one Philippine peso (РІвЂљВ±) for every thousand earned. Why then do people venture into a bad neighbourhood to do illegal business with an organised crime syndicate? One reason is that despite the risks, it makes economic sense. You seem to enjoy a good storySign up to our infrequent mailing to get more stories directly to your mailbox. In the end I settle on a diploma from Harvard University, a New York state driverРІР‚в„ўs licence, a Philippine birth certificate and a Pulitzer Prize. Who could I be? What could I be? For a moment, I consider a liquor permit, a pilotРІР‚в„ўs licence, or a Reuters press badge, and in an age of biometric scanners and genetic testing, itРІР‚в„ўs alluring to consider that one might still be able to design (or redesign) a functional identity with a few scraps of parchment and plastic. The prospects are as astounding as the array of papers. Though diplomas are the stock-in-trade here, transcripts, licences, passports, letters of endorsement, court papers, affidavits, seals, stamps, receipts, cheques, awards, badges, bank documents and identification cards of all sorts are also available on short order, the possibilities limited only by oneРІР‚в„ўs imagination. РІР‚ВAre you sure this is all you want? We can do anything.РІР‚в„ў She gestures at a thin 3РІР‚Р‡Р“вЂ”РІР‚Р‡2РІР‚Р‡ft (1РІР‚Р‡Р“вЂ”РІР‚Р‡0.6РІР‚Р‡m) wooden placard that has been plastered edge-to-edge with an impressive assortment of official-looking papers. РІР‚ВDo you want it to say magna or summa cum laude?РІР‚в„ў asks the short, stocky woman with the buzz cut.

Her furtive voice is nearly lost in the cacophony of the nearby traffic.