Best Posts in Forum: Expat Section

I think you are correct - my wife was charged P600 for a VERY SMALL plastic bowl (as she was feeling ready to vomit) and we later found exactly the same bowl in Mercury for P24.

Also, her operation had to be repeated at Holy Child - it was not exactly the same but was similar (in fact, it is quite possible the extent of the operation in Silliman was unnecessary and she could have had just the operation in Holy Child). Prices: Silliman - 3 days inpatient (IMO totally unnecessary even to be an inpatient) at P87.000; Holy Child - 15 minutes stay and a cost of P5000. There were other issues at Silliman, which I will not go into here, but there is a doctor there I would not use even if I was dying.

 

Good thinking, Dave_Hounddriver... domestic guardianship as an alternative in addition to domestic adoption, repatriation to Thailand, or American foster care options is worth exploring.

Whichever it will be, having had at least one loving parent to provide emotionally instability, nurture, and set good examples in a happy childhood, I am certain that, as a teenager, she will overcome grief in time and will have better chances at overcoming the challenges before her -- be these in Philippines, Thailand, or in USA.

The childhood memory of a father’s love in her heart will be her confidence in good times and will be her strength through bad times. May Frank rest in peace.

 

Well, I've left out a lot of consternation and uncertainty to leave the information in a more distilled format. For the parts that happened in Bayawan, I recently purchased a vehicle and was able to drive about to the random places they needed me to go. I won't go into the PAL experience as it still infuriates me, unless someone needs to know of the highway robbery.

As for the Emirates flight, my wife and I had return tickets to Kuwait that brought us here and were to return us to Kuwait on the 29th of March 2020. I called Emirates to re-book them, but was told I could not use them because I would be creating an "open trip" as Kuwait is not currently allowing any non-citizen inbound flights. The UAE will be an interim stop, necessary because Kuwait will allow returns from the UAE on the 1st of August, but not the Philippines.

So I booked an entirely new ticket to Dubai for the 11th of July on the 7th, and received an email on the 8th stating the UAE had changed their policy for allowing visitors from the Philippines to enter the country. Regardless of the nation of citizenship, people traveling from the Philippines would now need a negative PCR test issued 96 hours prior to travel from an accredited hospital. I knew there was less than a zero percent chance of obtaining a PCR test result prior to the 11th, so while waiting on the plane for takeoff in Dumaguete, I re-booked my ticket and bought my wife a ticket for the 15th, just on a prayer, not with any real knowledge of a timeline. Through phone calls, it seemed like the time frame was between 1 and 5 days, so it seemed safe.

We chose to go to St. Luke's at BGC in Manila as they seemed the most professional over the phone, through many calls to many hospitals I placed while still in Negros. After a 4 hour wait and numerous questionnaires in the emergency room, we had 2 procedures, one in the nose and one in the back of the throat using swabs and were told we'd get results via email in 1 to 2 days. It cost 6600 pesos each person. As I write this, I haven't received the results, but it hasn't been 24 hours yet.

 

debate over the topic, just my opinion. Philippines had the last years a stable GDP growth of about 6%, our western countries can just dream about such a number. it is still just a number that doesn't explain everything, but it means at least:
- there is money in the country, and quite a lot
- people + companies make money in this country, there are profits.
the simple old problem is: the money and the profits are in the hands of only a few and still so many people here have simply nothing. this problem must be solved. big money must be shared and invested in schools, hospitals, streets etc instead of bombs and weapons. fight tax evasion and corruption consequently. it needs a wise government and a good social contract and general agreement of the people of this country for a change. we foreigners play just a marginal role, we could just be good examples how to run good societies, which we are not.
unfortunately, the Corona crisis will bring the GDP down this year, and many people will face severe problems.

 

I actually started taking notice of the Malinois when I was in the military as it seemed like they were starting to be the breed most used by the K-9 folks. When I worked in Afghanistan it seemed like they were the dog used most searching vehicles coming onto base.

We have 3 Belgian Malinois (and some pure breed pups that need to find their forever homes) as well as some other pure and mix breed dogs...yes, we are dog lovers. Folks will have their favorite breeds but I absolutely love the Belgian Malinois; their loyalty, intelligence and protective nature is tops in my opinion. I haven't retired yet so I am away quite a bit for work so I do feel better knowing I have some dogs that will protect our home and family.

We were planning on eventually putting cameras in and then the wife had some concerns as our area has expanded; normally something I would do myself as I have experience with security systems, but it was a concern and I was not home at the time. A bit pricy and not as clean of an install as I would have done, but the wife is happy to have them. Our system can handle 16 cameras and we currently have 10 so it is on my list to add some more and clean up the original installation...on my list.

I would recommend for anyone worried about break ins and such to consider a CCTV system and a dog or two patrolling their home.

Plus dogs bring so much to your family...I'm watching my pure breed Papillon in his play around the apartment here in Korea as I write this. A gift for my wife when I bring him home in a couple weeks.

Shawn

 

While true that most foreigners are basically poor in their home countries I'll disagree with you. The reasoning is every dollar/peso a foreigner contributes to the economy has far greater weight for the country then the same amount contributed by a local. The reason is foreigners like OFWs are bringing in wealth from outside the Philippines which enriches the countries wealth exponentially. While there is no direct measurement one could still say one of my peso's that came from my US pension is worth 100 local peso's to the economy. Its simply that the locally economy can keep circulating on what it already has but it won't really grow because while one person may get richer another gets poorer maintaining a status quo. Bringing in outside money breaks that status quo and allows everyone that money circulates through to grow wealthier to some extent (except the originating country of course)

As far as land ownership to foreigners that is a very tricky situation. We do NOT want to make it possible for the Philippines or even a significant part of the Philippines to become foreign owned as the locals could end up being a foreigner in their own country in a way. However their is an argument to allow foreigners to own land in their name as well for minor purposes but how to manage this?

Now how to accomplish foreigners owning land even smaller amounts like 500sqm for residential purposes only? Any ways it goes there should be a way for the land to become owned again by the local government at a point be it when the foreigner dies w/o a local family member to inherit or doesn't meet certain residential requirements there anymore such as being absent for 1 or 2 years.

Now my suggestions:

1. Allow foreigners to become citizens with all of the same rights as a natural born Filipino citizen (besides President). Set conditions of course but said conditions should be somewhat lengthy but not ridiculously expensive. This would give the eventual ability for a foreigner to own land and a business. Maybe condition can only be met if married a Filipina and lived here for 5 years or whatever. However though a reasonable option should be there. It allows foreigners to have more skin in the game as well as rights.

2. Filipino's HATE taking advice from foreigners and we can understand this at times. However the truth is many of us have seen far more of the world as well as options for things that many locals even local government will ever see. As such I'd allow and actually have the governor and mayors put together a special sort of townhall or some sort of debate and suggestion structure to allow and look for suggestions from foreign nationals on how to deal with some of the common issues our communities face. After are many of us are community members but give us a voice in a positive way and be willing to listen to suggestions some of us can offer numerous positive points of view on issues they haven't thought of. Allow us to participate in this way as well making proposals and suggestions with an actual debate field.

3. Open a community public forum to mix foreigners and locals together and get us more connected. Plenty of Filipino's with some bright ideas out there and some foreigners as well. A community forum backed by the local government helping to put us together could do quite a bit. It could lead to new businesses as long as the foreigner feels protected on their investment as some Filipino's have bright ideas but no capital for even small things requiring only 20k peso's and a foreigner may be able to help as well as fine tune. It could lead to some sort of mixed group that helps out the poor community even. Many of us have done bits to help out the poor here and there even if just very local and I'm betting more of us would do more if we felt we could trust something and we do NOT trust things run by the government or a religious group but should it be local friends with a solid idea? Maybe. Anyways idea is to stop looking at us as foreigners and just brothers from another country and let us contribute and work with things.

4. Decide who are the friends of Filipino's and the Philippines and who is the enemy. 10 years ago it felt like the country was solidly pro American and while a weak ally still a staunch US ally. Today it feels like the US and Americans are kind of trash here and its all about China and selling out to China. The Philippines needs to make up its mind to provide some solidity and trust.

 

I assume the place to go is Grumpy's.
Several Expat - groups gather there due to the first class food and to socialize.

You always find nice people there. For breakfast, lunch or dinner. Saturday night they have life music.

If you look for top food for fair rates and like to have a chat with other guys, go to Grumpy's.

And the owner, Ralf, is always available for a chat and certainly he can give you a lot if advise about living in Dumaguete.

 

So when you get caught by a checkpoint having an expired foreign license, better tell the cops you have no license, it will save you @least 3500 peso.

 

Or you could get a trike and say...lto office sir