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Tom great pictures and memories. Looks like you got off to a great start on the first date.

I must have not clearly defined position on my first post regarding Chaperones. I am not against chaperones, I am against the mis-use of a chaperone as an economic benefit to the Filipina and her family for a meal, will little to no interest in developing a relationship. In Tom’s case, his future Asawa showed respect and clear thinking on her part in paying for the added family members attendance at the first chaperoned meeting. She was looking to meet “Tom the man” not “Tom the economic savior for the clan.” I appreciate the respect she showed to him and the whole process of trying to get to know someone and build a relationship. It was probably her way of introducing her family to Tom (my speculation). We have all heard you marry the family not just the woman here. She is obviously a very wise woman, which may be why Tom married her.

Congratulations Tom!

 

I am not sure any driving is safe here at night, even though I do it many nights of the week. Since i live in Bacong, I totally am familiar with the lack of lights on motorcycles (about 10 % no lights, another 25% with no rear light, and then the trikes with no lights also).
The key is not to drive as you drove in your mother country. I drive a motorcycle exclusive because of the maneuverability in avoiding things like 4 or 5 people walking abreast on the pavement in their darkest attire at night. The Bacong to Valencia road is full of those type of situations, while on the national hiway the number of people seem to be limited to one or two. Maybe the bigger lines of people were walking abreast have been picked off already by the car drivers who can not avoid them as easy as motorcyclist can.
The easiest way to stay safe is to drive with your eyes wide open as if you mother-in-law was out to get you or maybe you GF's husband. Focus on everything because if a motorist does not get you a dog will drive you off the road.
There really is no safe place to drive at night here except your driveway. I was once coming home to Bacong at about 2:30 AM with almost no cars on the road, to come upon two cars that had run head on while on the national hiway. My first thought it was a suicide assassination attempt, or a drunk. Turn outs the rumor was one driver had fallen asleep but the possibility of two cars running head on to each other on a almost empty hiway is amazing to me.

Watch the cars and motorcycles around you and notice erratic driving that may indicate a drunk driver. There will be a lot of drunks on the road in the coming "merry" season. Just drive as if you are in a demolition derby and you want to win by avoidance.

 

I agree with immigration controls because you simply cannot fit a quart into a pint pot - BUT to allow people to spend a fortune on Visas for 2.5 years, set up roots and occupations, and then cut them off is obscene. There are other ways to control immigration that are more reasonable.

 

Before you go to a lawyer, I would suggest that you visit the DTI ( department of tade and industry ) office located upstairs next door to BPI, San Jose Street. Take all your evidence including emails and text messages. They will let you know if they can help if the PLDT is not fulfilling their contract or if not they will tell you what legal recourse you may have. I would make the lawyer my last choice, as the cost may be exhorbitant and the outcome not to your liking. I had a problem with Cignal where they demanded money, even though I compied with the contract termination rules. DTI told me to ignore all bills as they would resolve the problem. A couple of months later all billing ceased.

 

When we came here 10 years ago and bought a property to save us having the paper work hassle we agreed a price with the seller that included them to pay all the fees and capital gain tax, BIG mistake, the title was never coming and the seller was blaming their "broker" (i use that term loosely) for not doing what they paid them to.
Long story short and it was an excruciatingly long story we had to pay 10,000php to get it sorted, not a huge amount and the time wasted was more annoying.
When we came to sell that property we insisted the buyer take care of all transfer and capital gain transactions as once we had the money they could take as long as they want to get the title.
The next place we bought we settled on a price that included us paying everything even the brokers 5%, all went no problem.

 

I know it's too late in your particular case, but when I renewed my UK passport very recently I used JRS Express. Cost no different to what you quoted and was received in Liverpool around 5 working days later. I have always used them - no waiting around as is the norm with LBC and the guy that does the paperwork is impressively fast!