During my recent visit in Sept I was going back to the hotel from Bajumpandan on a rented scooter with my wife and we ran into a checkpoint. I got stopped and asked for my drivers license. I showed him an expired California license and he looked at it, turned it over and looked at it again....then said "thank you sir" and waved me on!
California DL do not expire in the Philiippines... hahaha Last year I got stopped in checkpoint during the day about 20 km south of Dumaguete on the highway. The officers were nice, and asked for my registration. I said the dealer had never given me one (I had forgotten the paper work), so we went on from there. The they asked for a drivers license. I went to my wallet and I always saved my old licenses. I gave them one.... later I looked it was a 16 year old expired Caliifornia license. Again they looked at it and said everything was fine. They did ask the one critical question: Are you going to marry a beautiful filipina.... thinking of the alternatives of marrying an ugly filipino... or a gay... I answered in the postivie and they were happy. Off I went. ......
Dummy! If you had said you were going to marry an ugly filipina,you would have gotten a $25 gift card to Jollibee.
it wasn't that difficult for me to see a queue of about 25 motorbikes all piled up 500 meters ahead, slow down, and then do a U-turn and get the hell out of there. My helmet was kosher and had a sticker and everything, however the bird's was not. helmets with stickers may be purchased at the motorbike dealers for 625 pesos opposite that Shell gas station where you make the turn for the Private Garden Resort and the Waxworks Resort (also known as Dr. Kho's) 1km south of Robinson's on the highway.