Philippine courts might have to start paying for their mail next January because it has become too expensive for the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) to shoulder postage for court documents.
Acting postmaster general Antonio De Guzman has written the Supreme Court to ask it to review franking privileges granted to the courts by two Presidential decrees. He said that the rise of e-mail and text messaging has robbed Philpost of people willing to wait two weeks for a letter to get to a city less than an hour away by air.
Obsolescence, it seems, has been chipping away at what was once the leading postal service in Asia (according to renowned History professor and philatelist Wikipedia).
What is surprising is there is no real postal service to speak of anymore.
According to a letter De Guzman sent the Supreme Court:
“Except mail posted and for delivery in Metro Manila, the transport of mail is outsourced to private transport companies since Philpost cannot sustain its operation due to dilapidated condition of its vehicles and the high cost of providing the service.”
So that mailman in the Batibot video you saw growing up is just a myth now, Â apparently. Â Except for a ceremonial corps of postmen in the capital, our mail has been put in the hands of mercenaries who have not made an oath to let “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
To be fair, PhilPost postmen may not have made that oath either considering the pre-climate change glacial pace that our mail has been getting delivered.
Having to pay for their postage may give the courts more reason to deny us justice. At P6 per piece of air mail, and P4 for each piece of surface mail, the courts may soon have to shut down from lack of funds. I mean, everyone knows our honorable judges are poor as church mice.