Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Irony of Being a Iskolar ng Bayan

As I posted last week, I was supposed to go to Thailand for a coordination meeting with other ASEAN countries regarding distance learning or e-Learning. Last friday I was at the Department of Foreign Affairs to fix my passport. To my shock and dismay (not really dismay...), DFA won't issue me a passport unless I get a clearance from DOST that they are allowing me to travel outside the Philippines for four glorious days. That sounds just fine but the catch is DOST won't issue me a clearance to travel unless an authority issues a guarantors letter noting that I am going to come back here in the Philippines after four days. The problem is that there is no one, an authority, that would guarantee that for DOST. Hehe, what an irony, I am a scholar of the Philippines and its government and yet I can't travel for a scholarly meeting outside my country. Well, it doesn't really bother me that much since I know God must have a reason why it'd happen. Hehe, can't wait for the lifting of my ban to travel outside the borders of my beloved country, just one more year. :]

Continually learning,
Jep

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