Salutations

100% of property deals where the foreigner thinks they will actually own the land they are paying for will go bad. There are plenty of websites/people who think they know a loophole (and there will be plenty of Filipino lawyers who will be more than happy to make you believe they can get the land in your name for the right price as well). Most of these websites/people/lawyers have not tested their 'legal theories" in front of a judge in a Filipino court and all the appeals that will follow......which will take hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of pesos and most likely a decade or two. If anyone claims they have done so ask them how much their lawyer fees have been so far and ask them which court sided with them and which ones didn't (local/lower courts decisions are regularly overturned in the appeals court....and then the next appeals court will overturn the previous court's decision). It can be cheap to bribe a barangay captain or local court for a favorable decision.....not so cheap to pay for favorable verdict once you start to get to the higher courts or even the Supreme Court.

Anyone who says they know a way for you to own land and can help you get it done is either trying to set you up for a con or they simply don't know wtf they are talking.

Kinda sounds like the foreigner got shafted to me. Appeals Court said she had to pay him back but the SC reversed that decision.....then they upheld the Regional Court's decision that he get part of property? Maybe I'm reading that wrong?

The chain of events in that case is such a unique clusterf*ck of ignorance and pure greed that I wouldn't try use in any way to justify a foreigner owning land. He bought the land and illegally put the title under his name.....then his gf/wife illegally (and haphazardly) erased his name from the title thinking she would get away with it because he was a foreigner....later the foreigner tried to legally sell the land he illegally owned to a church? I didn't even get to the decision before I got lost on wtf was going on.

Curious, did you note how many years went by from first filing a case and the SC's rulings in these two cases? How much you think that cost in lawyer fees? The lawyers ---------->

Show me a straight forward "foreigner bought land - put title in his/her name" case where the SC made a favorable ruling for the foreigner and I might start to believe there is a way for us to own land here.

The only thing foreigners really need to know is this:

Philippine Constitution:
The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines
SECTION 7. Save in cases of hereditary succession, no private lands shall be transferred or conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain.

Who can acquire or hold lands of the public domain?
Filipinos and Filipinos controlled corporations

Seems quite simple to me.