Philippines Books

Love It, Hate It, Over Rate It!  What’s The Big Deal About Baguio? 

I went to Baguio the other day.  I was there for work, checking on the changes to update our maps and make sure they are as accurate as we can make them.  I have never really liked Baguio.  My first trip there was in 1989 and I thought it was overrated then.  I still think it is not what they tout it to be, but is that the fault of the city or the marketing people selling the place? 

Baguio is the “Summer Capital” of the Philippines.  In fact the President has a mansion there.  You can’t miss it as it has “The Mansion” spelt out in white painted stones across the front lawn.  About as tacky as any Filipino edifice and in keeping with the childlike emulating of the US Presidential Office.  I giggle how they call the husband of the President  “The First Gentleman”.  What was even more silly was the media referring to “The First Grandchild”.  How insulting is that to all the other grandchildren and grandparents in the country?  Anyway, you can’t miss the place, just near Wright Park and on the way to Mines View.

The Americans put the place on the map. A chap called Burnham was the architect I believe.  Burnham Park in the center of town has a boating lake and nice lawns and is but a short stroll to the grandiose named let down of the Pines of the World Park.  This is a scraggly bit of parkland with some pine trees in it and a silver jewellery shop.  Camp John Hay is the best kept part of town, mostly because for so long it was a recreation area for US military and not managed by Filipino’s.  Having seen it during the days of the US Bases and recently, I must confess it is showing its age a little under current local management.

We came up the back road from La Union but you can use the twisty Kennon Road (named after the US Engineer who finished the road project started by Europeans over 100 years ago), or the Marcos Highway.  The Marcos Highway has two new names now, depending on which province you are in when on it.  You can still see the remains of the bust of Marcos on a hillside as you descend.  It was supposed to be the “Mount Rushmore” of the Philippines but it really is little more than typical of the somewhat embarrassing Filipino habit of idolising all that is American or Spanish.  You can now see the bust was a ferro concrete affair built over a framework, not carved from solid rock like the original South Dakota masterpiece.  I have seen Mount Rushmore with my own eyes and I must say this Marcos bust is a joke in comparison.  To even compare the two is  something only the desperate, insecure or naive would contemplate.  Marcos’ stronghold in Ilocos Province is not far away and people there still idolise him and his thieving family.  After stealing billions from the Philippine people and murdering so many during Martial Law, it is a testament to the clan like culture of this country that so many still revere the dictator and his avaricious missus. 

Baguio itself is easy to take in by car.  So long as you have air-conditioning so that you can enjoy the cool climate without the pollution you will have plenty of time to see the sights as the traffic is absurd.  So many of the twisty roads are single lane and there has been such an explosion of people and vehicles over the past ten years it has had a very negative effect on the atmosphere.  It is cooler but it is also polluted.  An inversion layer or whatever the experts call it sits over the bowl that Baguio nestles in and keeps the fumes hanging around.

You can still get a giggle watching the locals walk around in parkas and woollen jumpers, but then way down in Angeles I was amazed to see people wearing winter clothing even during the day.  The temperature had plummeted there to 18 or 19 Celsius (68f-70f)  overnight and even colder up here in the mountains.  My GPS had us at about 5,000 feet and the temperature was down to 14 Celsius (60f).  I was loving it!  The last time I had been there, in 2002 with my wife, it had rained incessantly.  The rainy season from June to November brings very heavy rainfalls and blocked roads and it can be miserable.  At the moment there is still the threat of meningococcal virus hanging around, although we kept away from the public market where the fatal cases had been reported from.

Sessions Road is still a steep snarl of traffic and shops and home to one of four McDonalds in town.  The other ones are in a mall nearby, along the road past the market and in the new SM Mall.  This new mall is really nicely laid out and naturally cooled.  Of course there is nothing to buy there you can’t get in any other SM Mall but it is a benchmark of Baguio’s coming of age. 

There are so many housing developments springing up around town they are running out of usable land.  Squatters add to the eye pollution by perching on any steep hillside and daring nature to run them off with a heavy rain and a landslide.  IT firms and call centers are taking advantage of the cooler weather to attract staff and so Baguio is becoming more than merely a seasonal get away from the humidity of Manila and the Luzon Plain.  Infrastructure is struggling to keep up but there are opportunities to be had here, for sure.  

The views are lovely, the cooler weather is wonderful for those of us brought up in cooler climes and for the expat you can pretty much get anything here you would ever want.  Manila is a ten hour drive away but there are hospitals and malls and an airport and golf courses and so much more.  Those who call Baguio home really swear by the place and my opinion is just one of many.  By far the best suggestion is to go and spend some time there and make your own mind up.  If you hit the city in the latter half of February you will enjoy the Flower Festival, but the traffic would have to be even more intense than usual.

Before anyone accuses me of being a hypocrite, I freely admit I have been to Angeles in the past and I enjoyed the place for what it was then and is now.  I believe we must always have places like Angeles, they serve a purpose that human nature creates and I won’t be so naïve as to deny it.

But times and people change and I find myself quite disillusioned with the whole sordid sewer of a place that is really just a very small section of an otherwise vibrant and wonderful Filipino city.  So with that understanding between us (writer and reader), let us progress.  Angeles City sprung up to serve the needs of the US military.  Back in 1902 when the US Cavalry set up a remount station and cavalry camp there the local barangay was some distance from the camp gates.  Gradually the place grew as those bars and brothels that sprung up outside the camp gates met with the spreading tentacles of Angeles City proper.   

The hey day of Angeles would have had to have been in the 1960’s and into the 1970’s during the Vietnam War.  The expats who have retired here who spent time in the USAF stationed at Clark still hold the attitude that they own the town and the people.  Or at least many I have met do.  I can understand that sentiment as the USAF poured up to a million dollars a week into the town, more sometimes.

The airmen had the money and lust, the local girls had the looks and the need.  Perfect symbiotic relationship in anyone’s book.  Clark had the highest divorce rate of any military base according to one source.  He explained it was no wonder when Mrs Obese Ohio ’74 spent her days hiding in the house because the locals stared at her and hubby was off in the bars chasing sweet young Filipina’s all night long.

I spoke to one man who was one of the team that investigated the backgrounds of women engaged to servicemen.  He said it was more of a surprise when they found out she wasn’t out of a bar or had been selling her services one way or another for some time.  Most of the Filipinas were working girls, how else would they meet their future husbands?  He said he would love to follow up on some of the cases he had back then and see how many were still together, how many were divorced and so on.  He felt that there would be a higher percentage of couples still married than the national average.  He also felt if the marriage broke down after more than five years you really couldn’t pin it on the girls’ previous employment. 

June 15 1991 was the day Mount Pinatubo speeded up the inevitable.  With the nationalistic bent of many in the country; many who gained nothing from the US bases as they were but might if they were open to local development, it was a fairly foregone conclusion the Yanks would have to go home.  I have asked dozens of Filipino’s and I have yet to find one who has benefited from the USAF not being at Clark.  I have yet to find a single Filipino who doesn’t want them back!  Obviously I am asking the wrong people.  I need to get out and ask the rich minority who own businesses in the Clark Special Economic Zone that replaced the base. 

Unlike Subic Bay, where far sighted Richard Gordon organised the local middle class to protect the greatest asset their town (Olongapo) possessed, when the USAF left Clark it was in a bit of a hurry.  People were assured their homes would be protected and their belongings safely packed and sent on to them but many I have spoken to claim locals simply walked on base and looted every home they could enter.  They never saw their personal effects again. 

It is close to 20 years since all of that happened yet I can remember it as if it were just last week. One thing is certain, Angeles City is more than just Fields Avenue in Balibago. It is a thriving city with hospitals, universities and a heck of a lot going for it beyond the red light strip bordering Clark Special Economic Zone. Get away from the entertainment area and explore the city and surrounding province and you will find a lot more to do than just hang out in bars and drink beer.

A 67 year old Australian was shot twice in the head on Monday as he sat drinking in a bar in Aklan, south of Manila.  The murderer has been arrested by police however no motive or the cold blooded killing has as yet been offered. Read More…

For those who love reading Perry Gamsby’s insightful guides to all things Filipino For The Foreigner, but prefer to be able to hold the book in their hands instead of read off a computer monitor… you will be pleased to learn they are now becoming progressively available via Lulu.com.  ‘Philippine Dreams’, also sold as ‘StreetWise Philippines’ in a slightly different edition is the first of the range available in hard copy.

‘Filipina Dreams’ is the terrific value three-in-one hard copy (paperback) version of  the best selling ‘Filipina 101 - How To Meet The Filipina Of Your Dreams’ and the well regarded sequel, ‘Filipina 202 - How To Marry and Migrate Your Dream Filipina’. It includes both of these books under the one cover, as well as the 2009 updates and also ‘Filipina 303 - Making The Magic Last’. After reading this collection of hard earned experience any ‘Kano’ will be far better situated when it comes to understanding his Filipina and hopefully making the right choices. If nothing else, he’ll have a fair idea where he went wrong!

Also available is ‘Making A Living In The Philippines - The StreetWise Guide To Investing, Employment and Business’ and ‘Philippines Property Primer’, the real estate guide that has already saved quite a few readers a considerable amount of time and money according to independent testimonials.

As well as these, the ‘Philippines Survival Handbook’ is also available in hard cop. This text delivers a very broad approach to personal risk management in the Philippines and in fact, anywhere in the world. If you ever wondered how you would lie low in a country where you stand out from the crowd in nearly every way, read on!

In all fairness to the young lady who wrote to me about my web site ‘degrading’ her (see ‘Mail Order Bride’ below), she made some valid points. WHile I responded in that article with a rebuke regarding the reasons why the situation is as it is, the fact remains that many people view all Filipinas as ‘mail order brides’. Yes, it is unfair, yes it i wrong, yes it is inaccurate but sorry, it happens. It is then up to the individual I suppose to change the perception if she feels it necessary.

I didn’t create the situation and I won’t eradicate it, but I will not be a part of the problem and I do what I can to adjust attitudes. In my book ‘Philippine Dreams’ I make the point very clearly and in the opening paragraph that there is no such thing as a MOB and that I find the term offensive. It offends the Filipina and her foreigner partner. No woman will have herself delivered FedEx’d to someone halfway around the world just to escape grinding poverty. Well, not many anyway. Unless you have experienced such grinding poverty firsthand I guess you can’t say with any accuracy exactly how far you would go to improve your situation and future prospects.

The situation is not resting purely on one group or another, there are several vested interests involved. First of al there are the men who seek a companion from foreign stock. Whether they use an old fashioned printed catalogue and snail mail exchanges or the plethora of personal introduction web sites or even the web cam that allows vision and speech to speed up the whole process. What used to take many months of long waits for replies now can be over and done with in a day. While that allows people to get to know each other quickly and rapidly weed out the poor matches, it also opens up a pandora’s box of possibilities for getting ripped off. From either party.

Web cams, chat rooms and even those pay to view soft porn sites are places where men and women can meet in cyber space. I think they are not as invasive as an exchange between a sex worker and her customer, face to face but others might see little or no distinction. Of course for every girl working the web for her living there are many more simply trying to meet a man they can love and live with.

What my critic doesn’t know is that I was the person who branded the Filipino dating site ‘Itzamatch.com’ . This site is like any other dating site and is aimed at those Filipinos and Filipinas who are looking for friends and partners, be they heterosexual, homosexual or whatever. It is not a MOB site. The social class of the members is different to those who frequent the sites where the foreigners are likely to be found. They are younger, monied, educated and have never had to wonder if there will be any food on the table tonight, they were spoon fed by their YaYa until they were 8!

Of the foreigner contact sites, the men who visit there are as mixed a bunch as any. Most of them are over 40 and divorced, usually from the USA but increasing numbers from elsewhere in the western ‘Anglosphere’ world. Why are they there? Why are they looking for love and companionship from third world women of much less sophisticated backgrounds with arguably far less education than they have? Many do have college degrees and good employment prospects in their own right once out of the Philippines but the majority are at best high school graduates from small, provincial barangays.

Is it because these are the Filipinas who make up the majority of the pool of available marriageable women? Why? Well if you are well educated and live in an upscale home with servants and money and a future why do you need to find a ‘fat, old foreigner man’?

Keep in mind many of these men failed in their relationships with western women. They did not like the competition as society swings over from the old ‘wagon train’ mentality to the new ’spaceship’ one. The wagon train had the men fighting off the ‘injuns’ and the ‘wimmin’ making vittles and bearing children and so on. The spaceship has everybody equal as technology removes the need for the male attributes of strength, aggression and the ability to pee standing up. Upscale Filipinas are already on the launch pad while poorer girls are still hitching up the horses. In some cases literally if you substitute a carabao for the horse!

So the man thinks he wil get a better deal from a woman who treats him as the head of the house and appreciates what (little) he can provide for her. Unlike his first wife who was always whining and demanding more, his Filipina fetches and carries for him as if he were the most important person in the room. And he is until she can get the Green Card and the bank account and a job in the US and take care of herself and her family without him.

It happens and it is happening more and more. While there are still many dedicated, loving Filipinas genuinely seeking a man to love and cherish, there are more and more looking for a way to improve their lot in life and he is merely a means to that end. On the other hand, there are far too many men who treat women (all women) abominably. They should not be able to form relationships because they are so bad at them. They are selfish and childish and self centered and treat their wives like submissive sex slaves and then wonder why she left him. Or had him killed if he is living with her in the Philippines. (See related stories below)

Ten years ago I read little but success stories of Fil-Foreigner marriages. Today I read of more failed relationships, rip offs and scams and I wonder why. I think the speed of things is the factor. The internet has sped up the process so that no longer do you have to work at the relationship. A few clicks of a mouse and you can exchange a lifetime of lies. Then you rush into each other’s arms, be on your best behaviour and before you now it time has passed and you are ready for the ‘happy ever after’. Only then you find she/he is not as you were led to believe.

Men and women are made different for a reason, to compliment each other. When you add the societal and cultural differences, you have two people who really need to be either a match made in heaven (a fictitious place by the way) or they will both have to compromise and work together to make the marriage work. And hard work is too hard for most people, we all prefer the path of least resistance nowadays and that is divorce.

If two people who grew up in the same culture, speak exactly the same language and share the same societal values can’t get along, what makes these men think they can do it with a Filipina? And not a well educated one with a much closer grasp of western culture but one who has a warped version of our values. A woman who has probably never used a knife and fork, at best a fork and spoon and most likely her fingers to eat with. A woman from a family of many, perhaps with only the scattered education of the less than adequate government school system and full of mixed up myths and superstitions from the blend of catholicism and animism that passes for religion for 84% of the population.

Even is she speaks English, it will be a very different version to the English the man is familiar with. Word meanings are extreme only. If a word can mean even just two things and one is worse than the other, be assured she only knows the worse meaning. If you then use the word in its other context she will misunderstand you and it’s ON! Foreigner men forget how important family is to these women. All they have is their family, their kin and their lives often depend on each other. They don’t have social security, health insurance or much other than superstition and magic. They live in a land of volcanos, typhoons, floods, landslides, disease and reckless driving all backed up by the ridiculous belief that God will provide and if anything bad happens then it is His will and you can;t do a thing about it… bahala na!

So even the men who have only the very best of intentions have their work cut out for them. If both parties really try and work hard to make their marriage last then they will succeed and it will be a strong marriage. But if just one of them has any doubts or lacks total commitment or entered into the union for less than the stated reasons; it is doomed. Keep in mind many Fil-Fil marriages fail. The difference is the iron grip of the catholic church means only the wealthy and privileged can afford to buy annulments. Everybody else makes do by pretending all is well. There are far too many single parents, abandoned mothers and children, kept mistresses and bigamous relationships in the Philippines. But of course these are not acknowledged as they do not tally with what the culture claims.

The society is corrupt from the top down. Systemically corrupt. That might offend many but it is the truth and deep down they know it is the truth. Corrupt societies are far more open to exploitation than societies with moral integrity. Part of the problem are foreigner men who exploit the desire of less fortunate women to escape such a society. Of course the well off have no need to leave what for them is a great place and so they take offense at being seen as the same as those who do what they must to survive.

Life is not fair, it never was and never will be. I think in countries like the Philippines Life is more obvious, more in your face than in western countries where we tend to hide it behind a veneer of social justice and projected equality. Of course we have very serious societal problems in the west, no denying that and no doubt we have contributed to the problems experienced in the third world. But at least on this web site I like to think an honest view is expressed and if that cause someone to feel degraded, then they must ask themselves, why?

I received this email from an obviously well educated Filipina. While I understand her point of view, I argue that the situation is not of my making and if anyone is actively attempting to change the perception of Filipinas as mail-order brides and as commodities then it is I through my eBooks.

This young woman has had the benefit of a privileged upbringing in one of the wealthier families in the country. These are the families that own everything and part of the reason why the majority of Filipinos are poor and many feel the need to marry older foreigners and leave for a better future. It is her generation and social class that must take action and stop the cronyism of the ‘trapos’, or traditional politicians. These trapos are all from the same families, they merely swap political positions from election to election. They own all the commerce and industry and manipulate the economy and society to maintain the status quo. A situation that can only be changed by the young, educated and well off classes taking charge and demonstrating some leadership. Leadership worth following. I doubt it will happen while they stand to gain from maintaining this situation. Perhaps the pressure of being thought of as a mail order bride just might spur some into taking action?

Then the ‘masa’ will follow, they will cast off the yoke of the catholic church (controlling them with myth, superstitious ritual and the prohibition on effective birth control) and hopefully the country will move forward with some real hope for a brighter future for all Filipinos. Right now those whose only hope is to marry a ‘fat, old foreigner’ will cause all Filipinas to be cast in the same mold. So do something about it rich, educated Filipinas! It starts with you and the way you treat your domestic servants, the helper, the yaya, the lavenderia, the driver and the guard, then the sales clerks and waiters and so on. Treat them as equals and not as serfs and servants. People doing a vital job to make a living, not just there to make your living easy. Here is her email:

Good Evening,

I must say, your website is quite degrading. It’s true that many Filipinas do want to marry foreigners for money/white skin/”a better life abroad”, but not all of us do. Some of us are actually educated (not just in school but in life as well), have active intellects, and futures to build wherever we please. It’s unfair to the rest of us for websites like yours to portray all Filipinas as women desperate to find rich, old, fat guys looking for a child bride. Granted, you don’t use those words specifically, but it does come across like that.

I’m twenty-six years old and I’ve been actively chatting and making friends online since the mid-90s (I was twelve). Given that, I’ve met countless men who only saw me as a Filipina and automatically tried to find some way of getting married either to me or one of my friends. Unfortunately, my friends aren’t in the social class that usually marries foreigners so they can “get a better life abroad”. It’s been painful and very harrassing to be approached by men old enough to be my dad, and be asked if I’d marry them. I’ve cried innumerable times from the harrassing feeling of having pensioners and middle-aged men suddenly attracted to me all because I’m a Filipina.

I’m sure you only want to share your happiness with other men and women and you don’t mean any harm, but not all Filipinas are the way you say they are. It’s very humiliating and degrading to have to explain that I’m “not that type of Filipina” and I’m not looking for “a better life” because a better life for me actually means working hard for it and earning it myself. I have to make this explanation a lot because of websites like yours.

I’m not asking you to shut down your site, merely to be more considerate and include a paragraph or two advising your clients not to jump to conclusions, and to consider that no nation is homogeneous. We’re all different, therefore not all Filipinas are looking for a man who “can give them a better life”.

To be honest, I’m currently dating an Englishman, but it’s not because he’s white or he can “give me a better life”. He’s three years my junior, and when we met, he was still at university. But because of the stigma of the “Filipina mail-order bride”, instead of being proud to be together, we hid the nature of our relationship (and how we met) from our families and friends. It took several months to actually decide to tell other people that we were in a long-distance relationship. We met and became close because of similar interests, as I’m sure several of your clients have done with their wives. But unlike your clients, he had never met a Filipino or Filipina before, and he only found out about Filipina dating sites after we had met and he looked up Filipinas (to learn more about my culture). That was when we decided not to be completely honest with other people about our relationship. Since then, I’ve told my family and friends and have had to answer
too many personal questions and explain to every single one of them that my boyfriend “is not some old, fat guy wanting me to move to his country” but is someone who is actually around my age, has never been married, is going to follow me to whatever country I decide to settle down in, and feels the same way I do about mail-order Filipinas”.

I understand you have no ill will for Filipinas, but please, please explain to your clients that Filipinas aren’t all the way they expect. Your clients may not understand how their inconsiderate approach affects those of us that aren’t desperate for a way out of the country. It’s painful and it’s making some of us distrust Caucasians in general. At one point, I lashed out even at people who only wanted to make friends with me, because I had gotten another stupid message from someone who seemed to not even consider that Filipinas were not all made from the same mold. I apologised to my friends, but it was no less painful.

I honestly hope you set the record straight.

Thank you for your time,

(Name and address supplied but withheld by Editorial policy)

Well Miss, I think you should be very grateful you are so fortunate to be born into a family rich enough to provide you with such a future. Too many Filipinas have nothing to use to secure a better life than their looks and personalities and a very, very big reason for this is the systemic corruption and exploitation of the majority by the rich, landed and well educated classes. Feudalism ended in the west some centuries ago, colonialism perhaps less than half a century back and yet thanks to the influence of the catholic church and the greed of the oligarchs, the Philippines remains pretty much how it was when the Spanish owned the place.

I’m sorry you feel my web site degrades you, but that is your choice to feel that way. The truth never degrades or offends, it is merely what it is… the truth.

Comparing 21st Century Philippines and Medieval Europe

A thousand years ago, give or take a hundred, our ancestors lived in feudal Europe governed by Kings and Dukes and Lords and what not. Countries were relatively small and there was often much disagreement about boundaries and titles. Many rulers expanded their land holdings through marriage, inheritance and conquest.

Society had several layers, perhaps similar to the A. B. C and D class divisions used by marketing professionals here in the Philippines. The nobility were the A class, they owned most all of the land and ruled all who lived upon it. The B class were the second tier of nobles, land owning but owing allegiance to their Lord, a kind of middle class of sorts. The C class consisted of the artisans, Freemen and merchants, craftsmen and yeomanry. The D class were the serfs, the peasants who tilled the lands for their landlords, who owned very little but a few tools and clothes and would be born into serfdom, live as serfs and die as serfs. They were hardly better off than slaves.

The lines are a little blurred here, today. We have the minority A class who own the majority of the land and the industry and commerce. These are the really big names in Philippines society and most would look more at home in Madrid than Manila. Before the Spanish were sent packing, these were the “Filipinos”. There were the peninsulars who were born in Spain, the insulars born here and the mestizo’s who were of mixed blood. Everyone else was labelled as “indios”, the Malay-Filipino majority in other words. Filipino was a term used to label those who were born here, owned land here but were definitely not “indios”.

The original leaders of the revolt against the colonial rulers were all “Filipino’s”, leading their loyal serf “Indios” into battle against the Spanish. I don’t believe they had any intention of giving the Indios a fair share of the pie, they were merely cannon fodder. Today little has changed and the D class and much of the C class are collectively known as the “masa”. The masa are too busy keeping some rice on their tables to worry about revolt, revolution, redistribution or anything else remotely political.

In medieval days, the serfs were treated similarly and while they may have risen up on occasion, these revolts were isolated exhalations of frustration, quickly quelled. Any long term changes in power were carried out at the upper levels, using the middle levels for management and the lower levels for muscle. The only people to really benefit from the power struggles were the upper classes.

What made it possible for the lower classes in Europe to break free of the bonds of serfdom was the industrial revolution. Mechanization spread the wealth. People with talent and ingenuity and chutzpah were able to get ahead without the traditional leverage of land and the riches that were generated from this real property. People colonised other continents and attitudes changed the farther they were able to move from direct feudal rule.
In the Philippines, it has been only a few generations since the Spaniards were removed from power, fewer still that Filipino’s in the modern sense of the term have had a say in their governance and so the old ways still remain. The wealth of the land for mining, agriculture and industry is still held in the hands of the elite few, maybe 20 families or so. Beneath them, “running” the country and so on are another 100 families and then there is the (slowly) growing middle class and below them the “masa”, or D class.

The D class, a majority of perhaps as much as 65% of the population, are kept in poverty and check by their adherence to the dogma of the Catholic Church. The poverty cycle will never be broken while they continue to breed like rabbits, forbidden to do otherwise by the church. When the government; put in power by the elite and their campaign contributions, toe the church line and focus on agriculture instead of industry (manufacturing), there is little hope for the small land holder who can’t even feed his own family for a year from his acreage, if he has any.

The elite control the church, who do their bidding by telling the masa who the elite want them to vote for, ensuring the cycle continues. There is no real change here, the 20th anniversary of EDSA had more police in attendance than supporters as people perhaps finally grasped nothing changed after People Power.

Look at how people here live. The rich live in walled castles and estates with guards, gates and the modern equivalent of drawbridges. All the way down the line to the C classes they barricade themselves in against the lower classes. If you don’t, the have nots line the boundaries and stare at the haves. Or they squat and take over the land knowing the law will save them because that law (the Lena Law forcing land owners to compensate squatters with money or a new place to live it they cleared them off their own land) was a sop to the masa in the name of “land reform”. The majority of land that was reformed has been public lands and the property of the hapless middle class, too busy earning dollars overseas to protect their land on a daily basis.

You walk any suburban street and it is all walls and gates, barbed wire and guards. Sari sari stalls peer out of barred windows, everything sold must fit through the small gate in the bars or else risk opening the door and a rush of thieving poor people. Every house has some small business going, even if it is just to keep the helpers busy. Even relatively poor people have helpers. Wages are low to non-existent when people will work for room and board and the employer has the status of having other human beings working for them as servants. Serfs. People who have few choices and little say in how they are exploited, mistreated and used to boost the ego of their employer.

The schools are controlled by the church, ensuring the people get little in the way of a worthwhile education but come out well versed in the myth and ritual that perpetuates the church’s stranglehold on their thinking and opportunities. Only the well off can afford a decent education where, funnily enough, the amount of religious instruction is noticeably less with more attention, and time, given to useful subjects such as maths, English, science etc. Out of 23 (mostly college graduate) Filipino’s under 30 I have asked “How many centavos in a peso” only one so far gave the correct answer! But they can all cross themselves and say the rosary!

Often the “Lord of the Manor” is an absentee landlord, off at the Crusades overseas however this time he or she is earning greenbacks rather than Redemption. The church still holds sway over daily life, threatening excommunication and other mythical punishments to fit the dogma they have developed and fine tuned over two millennia. In medieval times the first son inherited everything, the second son would become a mercenary (travel abroad as an OFW?) and earn his inheritance at the point of his sword and the third or often enough illegitimate son would join the clergy. Rich fathers would purchase a bishopric for the illegitimate son, knowing he would make a pretty penny and it would keep him and his mother from usurping the inheritance of the legitimate offspring. Illegitimate offspring would be handed over to the local convent or monastery and brought up there, well away from prying eyes. How similar is that to today’s situation here with the church taking care of these delicate matters for the well heeled and even their own wayward members? Funny how the well off, rich and famous can get annulments in short order, everybody else takes years!

I am no expert on medieval Europe, or the Philippines for that matter. But for me the similarities are hard to ignore. Take a walk around your neighbourhood and watch the village idiot roam around talking to him or herself just as they would have in the middle ages, only the rich can afford proper medical treatment for their mentally ill family members. Look at all the micro businesses that eke out a basic living for their owners, the walls and gates and guards, the dogs roaming loose, the garbage piling up and the simple outlook of the peasants with little in their future but more of the same. Wonder why there are cleft palates and cleft lips and even still cases of leprosy, all conditions born from poverty, poor hygiene and insufficient diet. Then ask yourself when will this country have it’s “industrial revolution” and what will be the outcome?

April 9 is when we remember the surrender of the US and Filipino forces on Bataan, 1942. After several months of heroic defense with little food and supplies they were finally overcome by the Japanese. Not ready for the logistical nightmare of moving over 60,000 troops and many wounded, they marched most of them from Bataan to San Fernando where they boarded trains for Capas and then the final walk to Camp O’Donnell. Along the way some 16,000 men were murdered by the Japanese in what has become known as The Bataan Death March.

I have followed the trail of poignant markers from Mariveles to San Fernando. I have been to Camp O’Donnell and have the honour to say I contributed to the Cross that has been erected there in honour of those brave men and women.

Click on the link above, read about the Battling Bastards of Bataan. Lest We Forget

My daughters are always asking me if that dog bites or will this cat bite etc. I remind them that if it has teeth, it bites something with them! Sadly, a schoolgirl on her way to her floating school on Lake Mihaba in Mindanao was bitten by a saltwater crocodile estimated at 7m (23 ft) in length. Her boat was bumped by the croc and her headless body later found by locals.

The report, available online, is reproduced below:

A 10-year-old girl has been decapitated by a crocodile in a Philippine lake after it knocked over her canoe.

The girl and a classmate were on their way to their floating school on Mihaba Lake when the seven metre crocodile hit the boat and caused it to capsize.

Rescuers found the girl’s headless body floating on the lake yesterday.

Her classmate was rescued by a man escorting the pair in another boat.

Roel Hipulan from the group that runs the school said it was a monster crocodile.

He said saltwater crocodiles, some bigger than a bus, are known to inhabit the lake, though attacks are rare.

“The crocodiles have become aggressive,” he said.

The lake’s waters have been swollen for the past several months, causing fish to scatter to others parts.

The crocodile attack has prompted the evacuation of about 100 residents.

Saltwater crocs are rare except for some places in Mindanao and Palawan, where they are often large and nasty. We have them in tropical northern Australia and they are a worry, indeed. This is a timely reminder that not all the threats expats face are man made. Nature has some nasty surprises in store in the form of snakes, spiders, sharks, crocs, centipedes, viruses, typhoons, earthquakes and mudslides. Spare a thought for some of these and how exposed you and your loved ones are to falling foul of Mother Nature.

Another Australian man in his mid-fifties has been murdered in the Philippines. This time the victim was shot in the chest when armed intruders broke into his home in Negros. His Filipina girlfriend fled via a window. I have to say that this spate of three in less than three months is a new phenomena in my experience.

While I don’t think there is any kind of organised cleansing of Aussie expats in train, I do warn all readers once again to give their personal security a bit of serious thought. There are plenty of guns in the waistbands of Flipinos and it often doesn’t take much to make an enemy. Even laughing about something else while a Filipino sings Karaoke has been enough to get you killed.

Take care and take precautions. Check out my ‘Philippines Survival Handbook‘ and ‘SWITCH ON!” to personal safety!