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Dave, it´s crystal clear what you intended to achieve and it is also clear to me that your general opinion is not only black or white when it comes to the Plilippines and its people. You know this country better than I do and you know how many brilliant people are around here.

By the way, I don´t consider myself as stupid. But my wife is running the show here. She knows when to talk to whom in which tone and she is solving 99% of our issues in daily life. Our quality of life here in the Philippines is based on a certain financial power, but much more on her problem solving skills. That´s just fact. I can do a lot, but she can it do more easy, much better, much faster and she knows much better how to talk to people in case of conflicts.

And also by the way, being stupid is one thing. I can deal with that. But being lazy, arrogant, rude and / or being a cheater is something I can hardly handle.

 

Took awhile to get the glass for the windows and doors in; everything is basically done. The wife did decide to re-paint the exterior of the house and fence so a little bit left on the fence.

Shawn

 

Sir, I can absolutely see someone “flying of the handle” over this if, for example, they planned a typical 6 week visit to the states in January 2020 with a return flight scheduled for March. If I had been that person (I almost was but missed it by a week), I would still be stranded in the states and unable to return to my Philippine home, now in September. Where would I be staying over there? A hotel, still renting a car; who would be watching my place over here? It has been 6 months since I wouldn’t be allowed to come back home. This is not just some made-up “what if” situation, it is very real and many people are stranded abroad due to this arbitrary ban on a visa that is marketed as offering permanent residency in much the same way as a 13a.

Yes, the PRA yo trying hard to fix it; they have been trying since March 2020 but apparently not hard enough or BI us purposely trying to kill the program. They are doing a good job. PRA is a part of the Department of Tourism but BI makes the calls and BI apparently has no sympathy for PRA or its clients. One gets the impression that BI doesn’t really care much for the SRRV program and certainly does not work for its success.

So the travel ban in SRRV exposes it for what it really is, an extended “tourist” visa and not a “resident” visa per se. Anytime there is a ban on tourism, such as a reinstatement of the pandemic ban, after it gets lifted in the future due to future outbreaks that PRA clients cannot predict, you could expect to find yourself stuck outside the country as THOUSANDS are right now.

Go to the PRA Facebook page and see comment after comment after comment from people who cannot return home (if PRA has not pulled that down).

I think I would be justified in “flying off the handle” in your words if I was arbitrarily banned from returning home for an unknown indefinite amount of time when my entire home was relocated to thus country, in my case by a whole house full of goods moved by container, at the encouragement office the program who exempted import taxes in my behalf! We are so lucky that we missed that by just a few days.

For the future, there is a remedy. My wife will need to swear in as a dual and I get a 13a which is a true “permanent resident” more visa unlikely to be banned. And we will get our deposit back.

I would not recommend SRRV to mist people, not if they are making a permanent relocation and moving everything here. You will be here as a tourist and cannot reliably plan to leave and return home again. PRA is obviously embarrassed by this and trying to put it in its best light but it is what it is. Those people who are currently stranded have no idea when they can return home again on their Special Retirement “Tourist” Visas.


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Dogs that are chained/caged/neglected by their humans are the ones that are barking; very sad but too common.

I have 3 Belgian Malinois that have a free run of the yard and house...but d*mn they do have some huge voices when trying to alert us to something. I know they can be quite noisy, especially with the wife or me get back to the house...they missed us after all. Their barking at night is normally finished in a minute or so once they've figured out all is good.

We have good dogs and I never have to worry about my wife and family.

Shawn

 

True but you may be hanging out with the wrong people if that's what you hear. There are many very happily married and dating couples who have an age difference who have a health relationship based on love, trust and respect. It's the bar girls and free lancers at why not and similar places who talk like that because they are working girls!

Note: this is not an attack on anyone but a statement of fact from living here and understanding the language so I know what they are saying behind all our backs. There are nice girls who truly love their BF/Spouse irregardless of age and their are working girls who do it for the security and cash.

I edited my reply to use better language and attempt to NOT offend anyone or make it a personal attack.

DaveD

 

I think there may be some misunderstanding re the basis of the discount. I was also quoted a 'senior discount' for eye surgery in a Dumaguete clinic. No 'Senior Discount Card' was mentioned by me, or them. If there are businesses choosing to give discounts to seniors for commercially motivated reasons, then that's their prerogative, surely. You can't be arrested for accepting an unsolicited discount.

 

Appointments are made with each doctor's office, each doctor's receptionist. You can call the hospital switchboard to ask for referral to a doctor with hours that day 523-5957. Some doctors split their week with Silliman Medical.

 

Well, not a guess (the fact that some would be saved) but a process of rational thinking. There would be no point spending millions on cancer treatments, as an example, if there was no evidence that treatment prevents suffering and possible death. Similarly for a virus disease - the fact that it is more acute and easily spread makes it far more imperative to treat it by ALL reasonable means possible.

You note I used the word "reasonable" so I am not talking about shutting down economies where the risk is low or separating bike riders with plastic - but primarily the use of face masks, other PPE, social distancing, track and tracing and a few other things.

My 'evidence', which forms part of my rational thinking (not 'guessing') is two-fold:

1. The experience of treating other contagious diseases and the knowledge of how they spread - the evidence for Covid-19's spread is now overwhelming.
2. The fact that countries which did the things I listed above as 'reasonable' (I especially cite Taiwan) have had very low cases/deaths. So doing reasonable things = lower cases, lower death rates, lower educational and business disruption; doing nothing or very little or doing something but the wrong things (e.g Brazil) = huge number of cases and higher death rates.

Please cite your evidence for doing nothing and not overwhelming hospitals and killing people.