Best Posts in Forum: Expat Section

I hope they have a night crew and keep the monitoring 24/7. Hanging up the rifle and taking off the boots at 5pm would of course leave an open window for the bad guys. My boy has his bow and arrows ready just in case.

 

Thinking more about this, we need to offer advice to those entering a relationship with a filipina, if they wisely use our forum for consideration. I will speak out because I had one costly nightmare experience and fortunately one happy marriage. The heart of the matter is some of these "chicks" are world class schemers. What I learned the hard way is, "if you can't trust them, you can't love them", and terminate the relationship no matter the investment. It doesn't get better, it only gets worse.

 

We had the same situation when buying a car from a main dealer in April ... but they informed us of this RIDICULOUS situation in advance and we cancelled the order. Instead we bought a one year old warranted car (privately but via the same main dealer) already registered and in use from day one (it was an exact copy, even in colour, of the one we had ordered new, so we were very lucky). Not only is this a major problem for new vehicle purchasers (with the vehicle depreciating as it sits on the drive) but is a huge problem for businesses selling the vehicles and should not be allowed to continue. There are solutions if only someone at the top is willing to make the orders.

 

Many people have an entitlement mentality, often taught by our educational system and even cartoons are teaching this. They think they are entitled to the wealth that you have, no matter how small it may be. Words have meaning and when the meaning of words is changed to reflect a different set of ethics for those using those words. For example, Im in the states right now taking care of some business and saw on the news a university protest over something and in the video there was a guy, a student I presumed, that had a sign that read, Quote: Hoarding wealth is murder. Unquote. I began thinking about this sign and its real meaning and the intended meaning from this sign holder. What he is calling hoarding wealth used to be called savings. I recall when I was his age having come back from Vietnam and getting married and saving money to buy our first washing machine. That would be considered hoarding wealth I suppose. To equate that savings is the same as hoarding is absurd but so are many other meanings of words being used today. Then to make the leap that a hoarder/saver is the same as murder? Im sure that in his mind anyone that saves money is a murderer and he is entitled to their money because they are worthy of death, being a murderer.
If this is an example of the values that are being taught today then we are all in trouble. Those that ask for money believe those that are giving the money to be FOOLS and they are simply getting what is theirs that the hoarders/savers have taken from them.
The other problem is that these same people vote and they vote for the candidate that says they will give them the most money and the evil rich people will pay for it.

 

For me it was when I was in the US Army. One of my best friends was a Filipino who was on a student visa and joined the army to gain US Citizenship. He was always talking about the Philippines and I was just like *yah, ok... whatever*. But when we were in Bosnia his father died and he received 2 weeks leave to go home for the wake and funeral. When he came back he kept talking about how he spent 2 weeks partying, tons of girls, bought lots of electronics and 2 computers for his family... and only spent $2k. At that point I said to myself that one day I'm going to check it out and have fun myself. After got out of the service and got disability coming in from the service I ended up having nothing going for myself in the US and sick of how things were going I decide I'd go on a vacation to the Philippines. Having severe anxiety especially on traveling though I knew I couldn't do it alone so I started looking to meet someone online figuring maybe at worst I had some company for my vacation and maybe I could get lucky or real *lucky*. Well I met a woman online and that became my ticket in and I came to see her and the country. Stayed for 21 days and when I got home I said screw it, sold everything and packed up and moved to the Philippines. I thought I hit the jackpot as the girl I met was better then most of my past ex's (not much of a compliment though). Of course at this point she is long gone after getting tired of her crap and thieving ways.

 

Had a long think about this one before replying...thought about sharing my own experiences vs taking a more analytical approach. Lol, gonna do both!

In my very humble opinion filipinas tend to be born insecure, add to that their menfolk abandoning them when the going gets tough, is it any wonder that the goose that lays is jealously guarded? Its our problem too when we do the law of diminishing returns thing.....re-assurance. "No baby, I ain't ever gonna leave ya, just you call me anytime. No way honey, nothing on two legs no matter how sweet the smile is gonna tempt me, you just call me anytime". We don't give our spouses the chance of finding out that life can be cool and ok without the re-assure bit. It just increases their anxiety. In a similar fashion checking up on your whereabouts just increases the doubt and insecurity - and lots of us just let them do it.

When Mrs C and I first started I had to work hard at this. She us a product of her environment. Life is hard, she saw men bail out and run. Indeed, her own sis was left managing 3 very young kids whilst her brother in law p.issed off to where the grass was greener and just cut off his kids. No wonder she got anxious when this white male started strutting up and down her baranguay! Initial attempts to control, to seek re-assurance, and to check where met with steadfast implacability ie "you do this and I walk. I am not putting up with it. If you can not trust me then we do not have a relationship." 12 years later she is a lot less anxious, more relaxed and ok with my movements. Working in the Gulf has also forced this issue.

Readers may remember my post about the above sister. I tracked the guy down and brought him to Court. Result, C doesn't shoulder the whole family's burdens financially. I thought it would be useful to give an update. For amusement purposes.....

The guy that deserted my sister in law recently suffered a stroke. Immediately he is back to Court wanting a suspension of the previous order to support my sister in law. I am on his @ss in double time, private eye, my appointed docs, the whole works. Yep, he had a stroke for sure, but get this...he is paying P30k per week for rehabilitation physio whilst travelling between one province and Manila. Plus Hotels! He also is receiving sick pay from his employer at 80% of salary. He hasn't paid a penny to his kids since November 15. With all the evidence...medical, financial and the private eye (hey the guy really doesn't want me to let his current squeeze know what he gets up to when in Manila for rehab physio...but that's a different issue) ....the court threw his petition out. The peso tap is once more turned on. This time the guy knows if he tries it on he is bound for jail. So I guess I am saying that I do have confidence in the court system....shame most folk can't afford it.

All the best,

C

 

Great - I am a firm believer in self-tuition. Rather than educate the masses with what they don't ever need to know, best to educate them to find out WHERE to locate what they DO need to know.

 

I did just that and it was a disaster.

The bank (OCBC) tried to persuade me to convert my GBP to SGP or USD (commissions for them I assume) - this was at the time the GBP was at about 58 pesos! I said I would wait but they insisted that the pound would crash further very soon. They were wrong.

They phoned me regularly for a chat but I guess were just trying to get me to convert my cash. Then they swapped my 'Advice Manager' to a lady with a very strong Chinese accent and I could not clearly understand what she was saying. I emailed them and asked if they could contact me via email as I had a difficulty in understanding the accent.

A while later I received a text to say all my money was being withdrawn and as as it was a substantial sum I was very alarmed. I phoned them at once to tell them it was a false withdrawal and discovered that it was because they were closing my account - and intended to send the money back to me by cheque (those things that they say they want to phase out!). I told them I was not living at the address currently and so they said they would send it to me in the Philippines and that it would be via normal post and not a courier. I had transferred the money originally by wire transfer and so asked them to send it back the same way - they refused (in fact they were extremely unpleasant all the time during this matter). I even faked an illness to get them to be more sympathetic but as they were Chinese they had no concept of that.

I then contacted the UK branch where I had signed documents to open the account but they said each country was a separate entity - however they said they would try to help. The money was then sent back to me via wire transfer. Phew!

Banks are interested only if we do with OUR money what THEY want us to do. Two months after this debacle the pound rose briefly to 74 pesos and at that time I would have done the conversion. :(

So my advice is to be very wary about opening accounts abroad and NEVER deal with the Chinese.

 

Having Checked with my bank PNB this morning, I am assured that Cora ( my wife) is clearly recorded as my beneficiary and after the sorting out it will be then become her Account or Everything Transferred to her own account that she holds with them, This is reciprocal for Her to me, I might add, that should we both go together ( not a Nice thought but) Our Daughter is recorded as the 2nd Beneficiary and it would all go to her