That's a wise disclaimer because cherry picking supreme court decisions does not mean the judge will agree with you, if it ever comes to that. Good lawyers make a living by hiring clerks to check ALL the supreme court decisions before advising their customers or forum members what they should do and each situation is slightly different than the others. There are potentially as many decisions in favor of foreigners getting their money back as there are against it. Each court decision will be different. But if you cannot handle the risk, its wise you do not put your money in property here. The one thing all agree on is that foreigners cannot own land. But if you have enough money, you could buy or start your own Rural Bank and hold a mortgage on land. That pretty much secures your investment which is all most of us want. The advice I received and followed is that you don't have to be a bank to do it. Private mortgages are legal and regardless of the pettiness of details, your money is secure to the point you can force foreclosure to get it back. While not land ownership, its good enough for me. AND: (edited) I am willing to put my money where my mouth is. I "own" such a mortgage on a piece of property that I would be willing to sell. It is my plan to pretty it up a bit and put it on the market for 1.5 million pesos but if anyone wanted to buy it today I would sell it for 1.2 million and you paint it. I GUARANTEE that you will get the title to the place even thought its me, a foreigner, who will sell it to you. GUARANTEE as in if you don't get title you pay nothing and I will pay you 5% of the purchase price for wasting your time. The only thing I ask, is that if this happens, people stop posting info that says it cannot be done. Remember: I do not claim to own the land. I do NOT own the land. I own a mortgage on the land and I have power of attorney from the seller to dispose of it and collect the money to realize my investment. Any takers? Anyone gonna put up the cash and call me on it?
Show me one then. I don't even mind if you cherry pick. If the are potentially just as many being in favor of foreigners as against them then there shouldn't be any problem at all finding just one. I'm not asking you to put your money anywhere, I'm just asking for a source/SC ruling. I'm more than willing to change my mind on this, in fact, I'd be extremely pleased to change my mind on the topic. I'm not cherry picking SC rulings, I tried to find a case where a mortgage owned by a foreigner was upheld by the SC. All I came up with was unsourced blogs written by expats and a real estate websites. Uh huh, go on. Do you guarantee that the title will never be contested down the road and that any potential lawsuits would have a ruling in my favor? If so, can you show me legal precedent from existing rulings? (Not what some lawyer says, an actual SC ruling.) I have absolutely no doubt that you can transfer a property title, my doubt is if that transfer is legal. It doesn't matter that people do it, I know it happens. I know I could have 100+ Philippine land titles put in my name with very little issue at first. I can also ride a wheelie at 200kph through Dumaguete during rush hour...but it wouldn't be long before I paid the price and became nothing more than a stain on the road.
Instead of discussing this with me, who is not a lawyer, why not go discuss it with the attorney I mentioned and ask all those pertinent questions. It cost me a 1,000 pesos for that consultation and I'm sure he would give you the same price. Give him all the reasons why you think it cannot be done and listen with an open mind to his responses.
I have to give you credit for moving your own posts to the "yada yada" thread as well as mine. But I bet you did not remove yourself from the thread as having "nothing more to add" because you write as if your word is from God's mouth to your ear. I don't recall saying you were wrong, but there can be two "rights" and you fail to even admit that. How can there be "two rights"? Let me just say that you saw a glass half empty and I saw a glass half full. OK?
Optimist :THAT GLASS IS HALF FULL Pessimist: THAT GLASS IS HALF EMPTY Engineer: THAT GLASS IS TWICE AS BIG AS IT NEEDS TO BE. FYI: I always go with the engineers.
...and there is not a glass available within 0.1mm of the required size so I will have to design a new glass of appropriate size. (at a total cost 1,000 times higher that buying one off the shelf - but hey, job security)
I avoid the entire dilemma by drinking the wine straight out of the box. That's just me....hic..hic..