NBI Clearance at Robinsons Otis

It was not planned but when we passed by the UN Ave in Manila yesterday, I decided to renew my NBI Clearance at Robinsons Otis. I heard it's easier to get the NBI clearance there compared to the main office & other satellite offices. It's no wonder since the mall is kind of small and secluded. I only saw a few number of people inside the mall. I arrived at 1:10pm.

As a first timer of this mall, I didn't had a hard time finding the NBI clearance processing center.  It is located on the level 2, end of the hallway, passing through Handy Man & CD R King.

There isn't a line when I arrived, people are seating on the waiting area. I approached the friendly guard to ask where should I start and if it's ok that I didn't brought my old NBI clearance. He hand over the application form and told me that all I need is a valid I.D. He also explained the procedures:

Step 1: Payment 

I paid Php115. 100 for the Local employment fee and 15 for the documentary stamp. The payment window is on the right side.  I was already seated, waiting for my turn in encoding when I took that photo.  By the way, I wanted to check how long it will take me for this clearance. I started around 1:30pm. Logged it on my mobile. *snicker*

Step 2: Encoding

Only a row before my turn. Hmm..that's fast. I didn't even had a chance to play Angry Birds at my mobile phone.

Step 3: Digital Fingerprinting & Photo taking

This is when I got to wait longer than during the step 2. When I reached this point, there are no more lines in the payment window and people on the encoding waiting area only occupied 2 rows. This made me wished I should have arrived later. ~hohoho. Oooh, we're really into digital age. It was kind of fun doing the digital fingerprinting. Unlike before, where I had to wash my hands a couple of times to remove ink marks on my fingers. Eeew.

Step 4: Wait for your clearance at the separate waiting area

This is it. The final step. Some people left as soon as they finished the latter step.  I guess they live or work nearby so they'll just return again to claim their clearance. What the heck, it only took me a couple of minutes before I heard my name being called. Viola! I got my NBI clearance. As soon as I get a hold of the paper, I listed down the time. It's 2:51pm. It took me 1 hr and 21 minutes. Not bad.

For those interested, here's the address:

NBI Clearance center-Robinson's Place Otis

Schedule: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm (Saturday is for releasing only)

2nd level Robinson's Place Otis

1536 Paz Mendoza Guanzon st., Paco Manila

If you're commuting, whether you're from North or South, ride LRT-1 then drop off on "United Nations Avenue" station. Ride a tricycle, ask the driver to take you to Robinson's Otis. You'll pass by Manila Police District-Petron-Unilever-NFA-Honda-Isuzu. I included a map here, so just check it out.

View My Saved Places in a larger map

Anyway, after acquiring the clearance, we had a late lunch at Tokyo tokyo:

 

TCGB!

Modern Wushu for modern times

First and foremost, before criticizing negatively the art of wushu,  one must study its history way back during China's dynasties up to why modern wushu was made.

Modern wushu received lots of negative criticism from people who viewed it as just a flashy gymnastic performances.  Well, modern wushu was created primarily as sports.   Its movements differ from most traditional wushu styles because just as I've said, it is for sports, for competitions.  Its movement and timing satisfies the criteria needed to get a score from the judges.  If you don't want to join the competitions and you just want to use wushu for self defense, then go for Traditional wushu.

In old China dynasties, people have to defend themselves during war (Imperial guards, civil war, etc), that's why most chinese learn tradtional wushu as a necessity for their everyday lives.  Nowadays, in our modern times, not all people have to defend themselves in an everyday basis.  It's like a pager turned into a mobile phone.  Modern people want everything fast and quick results, not all of them have the dedication needed for traditional wushu.  Traditional wushu, to make it perfect, needs a lot of time of practicing.  But, not all people have that amount of time.  That's where modern wushu fit in.

I beg to disagree to people saying it can't be use in a fight or as self defense. Forms, whether it's a traditional or modern, has nothing to do with your skill in fighting.  It's in the way you power train.  Plus, you should know how to apply every single part of your form.  For example, a simple leg sweep movement, which both modern and traditional forms have, even though you know how to do it, if you didn't train your leg to be strong, it will be useless in a fight.

We, in our organization, we learn both modern and traditional wushu.  We combine modern wushu forms with traditional training.  Modern wushu forms for competitions since we also wanted our students to experience joining in National Wushu Championships. Though modern wushu form may look choreographed and flashy; but since we power train them in a traditional way and we taught them the application, their punches and kicks in a fight will still be deadly.