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And yes they should have spared the child. That being said it's pretty obvious that the child could have identified the killer/s and such had to be dispatched at the same time as the parents. Been reading all here and also several newspaper accounts of what happened (real or imagined). The reoccurring statement is that he was an advocate of no dynamite fishing and coral destruction. It is quite widely known that the dynamite fishing and disregard for the coral is exchanged for food to feed the masses. Long before Giovanni came here and (unfortunately) after him this practice will continue and be accepted as a way of life/survival in certain areas of the country.
IMHO..... pick your causes carefully, do not p*ss off the locals who have run the area you are in for decades and regardless of your personal convictions think of the ramifications to your loved ones before you go out on a 1 man crusade against what you deem to be wrong with parts of this country..

 

5 years ago today we had our wedding reception at Casablanca so we celebrated our anniversary there. Tonight we were blessed to have our son Kennedy with us who will turn 4 next week. Further blessing was Guenther, Kennedy's Godfather, coming in with an absolute beautiful flower arrangement for Crislyn and also cooked us a fabulous gourmet meal. Thanks to my wife for marrying me and for Guenther for making the night special and fond memories of 5 years ago.

note: pictures failed to load, on my Facebook

 

I mentioned this is another article. A pedophile is someone who is attracted to prepubescent children. At 15 years old, women have largely matured in the body.

It's interesting that people talk about "the pedophiles" as if they are some secret society invading the Philippines and other poor nations. Men with an attraction to prepubescent children make up a shockingly large part of the male population. This is a trait which is everywhere, every country and probably far more common than you realize.

Many researchers taking a different view of pedophilia - latimes

This article mentions that perhaps 1-5% of men are pedophiles. The article doesn't cite the study which came up with these numbers, but I bet this is in the ballpark.

The complication of actually carrying through with sexual contact with minors is the collision of desire with availability. Most men are attracted to women, but few men will resort to force to get sex.

Among the factors that makes pedophilia so bad is that men often don't need to use physical force over children to do something the child would rather not do. In some cases, adult authority is sufficient. Though using a position of authority is often illegal (employment) - the child doesn't know this. While someone hopeless with adult women may never get laid, a pedophile may only need access to children.

At 15 and older, this issue gets hairy (no pun intended) in different ways. A 16 year old girl should know what she is doing. She is doing the same thing many other Filipina's (or women in general are doing) - she is getting money, gifts, stability or something she highly values in return.

These guys wouldn't be getting busted for hooking up with 15 year old girls if there weren't 15 year old girls seeking (or willing to get into) this sort of arrangement. I have seen 15 year old girls in bars - drinking. Maybe we could start by keeping kids out of the bars? But why do that when kids are able to buy cigarettes and alcohol at any age.

I think I lost my point somewhere. I'm not sure where I was going with this. I don't know what the solution to this problem should be. Maybe the Philippines needs to focus on helping the local population rather than demonizing foreigners.

This demonizing and protectionist attitude is partly the problem. This country is in the tight grip of a small number of people. You see the same names popping up on everything of value here. Perhaps they have an interest in keeping foreigners from doing something which will disrupt this? Then the country can stay poor rather than lift the Philippines so that these women might have other options.

 

I like AUB, Asia United Bank, across the street from the check inn on Locsin Ave. I really hate to tell people about this bank because I am afraid they will end up with too many customers. As it is now, when I go in there, I am the only one there, and therefor the first in line. They have two ATM's in town, one out side the bank, and the other next to the Red Ribbon bakery, inside Lee Plaza. I think they still have a few Safe Deposit boxes left, but i'm not sure. I have both a dollar account and a piso account. I send the money over as dollars, and when I need pisos I sell my dollars to the bank for usually about 5 centavos less than spot. They just transfer the money from my dollar account to my piso account and I never have to touch a thing except sign the paper authorizing the transfer. The managers name is Shellane, a very nice and helpful lady. Oh yes, and they have parking spots for 4 vehicles, or 5 or 6 motor cycles. The guard will come out and move the sign so you can park. Every one in the bank is very friendly and eager to help.

 

I wrote about this....they put her on a list.... I even know the fast food outlet..... but this is not something new.....it is done at a lot of places in town.....a form of slavery....BUT NOBODY CARES.... they pass minimum wage laws....then ignore them.....you complain and you are out of work.... the ground crew of PAL went on strike....PAL fired them all and hired new people..... laws mean nothing unless someone enforces them..... half the problems in the Philippines could be corrected over night....just by enforcing the laws on the books.....
I see several threads on here about improving things or solving problems..... the ONLY people who "can" solve problems or improve things....are Filipinos.....and until they decide they want it changed.....WE .... foreigners.....can not do anything....... I have and still am trying to create a JOINT organization of foreigners and Filipinos with an eye to improve and change things for BOTH of us.....improve the quality of life for ALL of us.... everybody smiles and pats me on the back BUT NOBODY STEPS UP AND JOINS.....and without Filipinos it is just a gripe session with no chance of getting anything done

 

General Statement: What is not understood here by most business operationers is the foreigner mentality of customer loyal and brand build up. Part of that loyalty by the foreigner crowd is that we are minorities here, and like to go to places we feel comfortable with, not changing the establishments we purchase more times than we change our underwear. If they can over charge you for one drink and put an extra 10 P in their pocket, it does not matter to them if they never see you again. Remember it is only what they can do to get that next meal here, not what they should do to insure a a healthy business that provides a long time livelihood here for them..

 

Said here many times by many members, but IMO you cannot do better than Premier Dental Care Solutions (opposite side of the main highway from Robinson's Mall and heading south).
Premier Dental Care Solutions, Tan Alley Building, South Road, Tabuc Tubig, Dumaguete City. +63.917.174.5005 +63.998.957.5397 +635.421.05.79 premierdcs@gmail.com Website: http://www.premierdent.net/home.html

The premises are very modern, clean and well equipped and the dentist (Dr Julie Flor Cordeta) has over 14 years experience, is very well trained, very caring, highly competent and totally trustworthy. The whole set-up is very professional.

If only every service was the same, we would be living in Paradise.

I have no connection to this service, except as a patient.

 

Err, no. IATF, like every government agency on the planet that is tasked to advise/decide on measures to contain the epidemic is struggling to find a balance between
a. keeping the spread of covid-19 down enough to avoid overwhelming available hospital beds and collapse of medical services.
b. tailoring measures to keep the spread further down among the most vulnerable groups (older people) and among the group that's most likely to get infected and spread it to family members (children)
c. pressure from those suffering economic hardship

Does that mean they get it right all of the time and don't make mistakes? No of course not.
But calling them "crazy", thus inciting people to disregard whatever restrictions they impose, is totally irresponsible.
As far as I know the lack of proper PPE for hospital staff has still not been resolved in this country. People who wish to disregard restrictions are basically saying it's fine if more nurses and doctors die because of their actions.

People in this country should realise that
a. medical facilities here are a long way from being comparable to developed nations (hospital beds in Germany per capita are 6x what they are here, ICU beds are 10x what the Philippines has)
b. access to medical care for many in this country simply doesn't exist.
c. the virus doesn't care about any of that.

Moreover, as bad as Covid-19 already is here, the Philippines has still been relatively successful so far, in most developed nations there are between 3 and 8 times as many cases per capita as here.
And yes, if only because of its fragile healthcare system, this country should try really hard to keep cases down.
In my view, if anything, the measures to control the spread of Covid-19 are not strict enough, rather than too strict already.