Philippines Books

Archive for the ‘Expat Info’ Category

Editor: Once again Jim Baumbach gives us some insight into life in the Philippines as seen through his eyes. His spare prose omits  the extraneous and leaves the reader with just the nuts and bolts of the story but the point is made, the message gets through. For anyone who hasn’t experienced a public hospital in the Philippines, perhaps this will give you an inkling. If you can’t afford the cost of decent care, too often you die. When it is one so young as Jim’s niece, perhaps it is even more poignant.

Paediatric  Ward

Last evening our niece was rushed to the Hospital with difficulty breathing due to asthma.  Her condition was stable;  as part of a Filipino family we left to visit her.

We live in the Philippines just south of Manila.  The baby, one year old, lives in Manila in the Tondo section of the city.  Tondo is the main slum of Manila.  We arrived at the hospital around 6PM, and walked in the Emergency Room door.  To a westerner, like me, it was quite shocking to see this room.

Upon entering, the first Ward, labelled, Medicine was for adults.  There are 14 beds in the area with most of the patients hooked to IV tubes.  One Doctor is in the Ward working alone at the time.  The room is divided by a floor to ceiling wall but only extending about half way through the room.  The other half of the room is labelled Paediatric.

Visualize an ambulance litter.  From the top to bottom there is a sheet covering the litter and in the middle is a divider.  There are 16 litters in this room serving 32 infant to age 3 year old children.  Again, most are connected to IV tubes for hydration or as feeding tubes.  The same Doctor is in charge of this section as in the Adult section but with one nurse visible on the Paediatric  side.

Our niece was connected to her IV, serving as her food supply, since she cannot nurse due to her condition.  She has a nebulizer being administered by her aunt.  Her prognosis is good. After giving money toward the medical bills we return home.

Poverty reaches every person here in some way.  Perhaps that is why many chose to ignore that which they feel they can’t change instead of changing the small part they can.

Jim Baumbach
Bacoor, Cavite

Well, if I was to be given a Peso every time someone has asked me about getting an annulment in the ‘no-divorce’ Philippines I would have enough money to buy a few cold San Miguels, let me tell you! The reality is you can get an annulment but up until now it has been long, slow and expensive. And more so when they know a Kano is waiting for the Filipina to become marriageable once more.

While the cynical old hands among us would usually advise you find another one, once you have fallen for your Filipina that is not an option. We get all chivalrous and start polishing our steeds and grooming our shining armor or whatever. So if you are determined to set her free, here is some info from an expat I have known online for many years and we have mutual friends, we may even have met at some point. I will call him ‘Mr Fixit’ for now as he wishes to remain anonymous. He also has some other great information that we will post here as soon as he sends it in.

Annulment

Often foreigners meet Filipinas via the Internet dating/friendship sites. Many of the foreigners are retired workers and have been divorced or widowed or never married and are seeking a companion in their twilight years. The Philippines is a popular country in which to retire in due to the abundance of smiling, happy and willing women. An added attraction is the substantially lower cost of daily living.

Many of the Filipinas looking for partners through the internet are desperately searching for a better way of life so a 20 years old woman corresponding intimately with an often-overweight 60, 70-year-old foreigner is very common.   Many of the women and (their immediate family) expect the foreigner to marry them.  Frequently, there is an impediment to a marriage as the woman is already married but separated from her spouse. There are many women in this situation simply because they do not have sufficient money to pay the attorneys.

There is no divorce available under current Philippines law, although an annulment of a marriage is possible through the courts system.  Many law firms specialize in handling annulments, however, the legal and court system in the Philippines is often slow and cumbersome with some annulments taking 2 years or longer to reach a conclusion.

As well, the costs annulments are significant with attorney fees, court docketing and filing fees plus a host of associated fees such as court appearance fees for the attorney and often the account can reach 250,000 pesos or more.  Unfortunately, if a foreigner is involved the legal fees can increase also and the longer the case takes to appear before the judge the greater the income to the legal team.

Nevertheless, there is an alternative way to obtain a legal dissolution of marriage at a much reduced cost.  It is simple and only requires the Filipina to file a case against the husband.  The woman does not have to appear personally and the court officials will prepare all of the necessary documentation.  A senior judge will hear the divorce action and a decision handed down ordering the marriage legally dissolved. The Judges decision will be recorded by the Court and  the whole procedure takes a maximum of 4 or 5 weeks.  The costs of the fast track divorce all legal fees are approximately 110,000 pesos.

The woman then takes the court order to the local Civil Register of the place her marriage had been solemnized and requests her previous marriage to be rendered null and void. When that is completed, she is free to remarry in any religious ceremony under her maiden name.

EDITOR: To learn the details email support@philippinesdivorce.info and we will put you in touch with the right people. It is legitimate, it is cost effective and it is proven however to ensure both the commercial viability of the method and to ensure certain vested interests are kept at arm’s length we will vett all inquiry.

Konrad Hille:  The article below about Mayor Alfredo Lim closing down the L.A. Cafe needs to take a look at all sides of this issue. First of all if we give Mayor Lim the benefit of the doubt, he is merely the man who has to rubber stamp any actions required of the City goverment. He is the Mayor and he has littel say in the matter after it reaches a certain stage. Justice must be done as they say.

A little less kindly and we ask what’s in it for Lim? Of course we have to acknowledge there are more snouts in the trough than just his and that is the same anywhere in politics and civil governance anywhere in the world. It is just a little less hypocritical here in Manila.

A third point of view is that if there are minors involved and other people at risk then the government MUST take action and Mayor Lim has done that, swiftly and determinedly. Who really has suffered here? A few drunken expats with lots of other bars to go to and a few hundred Filipina freelancers, not to mention the bar’s staff and owners. But if one person, forced into prostitution against their free will has been saved then surely it is worthwhile?

When you have lived here as long as many of us have it is all too easy to become cynical and immediately write something off as being the worst. In fact for too many expats the only exercise they have is jumping to conclusions and running off at the mouth, or keyboard. I was last in the L.A. Cafe in March, just out of curiosity. It was jam packed and noisy and after one drink I was happy to escape. I recall years ago when it first opened it was something of a breath of fresh air, but nowadays it has a certain odour that no longer appeals to me.

I’m not bothered it is closed up but if more follow then I am pretty sure the crusade is back on. Like most things here in The Land Of Lip Service it will be mostly for show and to settle some old scores.

I recall the dark days in Ermita in 1993 and 1994 when the then Mayor of Manila, Alfredo Lim, closed down all the bars on Mabini St and M.H. del Pilar St. I was even in one when it was raided and the girls rounded up and taken to the police station. The official word was that Lim was cleaning up Ermita of prostitution and protecting Filipina womanhood from the ravages of tourists on sex holidays.

I also heard at the time he was cleaning out the area so his Chinese-Filipino friends with money could buy it up cheap but lost out when the 1997 crises hit and with no tourists spending money in Ermita anymore the place just died. Meanwhile, again according to the gossip of the day, Lim himself owned bars with GROs in Pasay, which is not part of the City of Manila itself.

Now it seems that he is back as mayor and up to his old tricks. The L.A. Cafe on M.H. Del Pilar has for several years been a place where foreigners can eat and drink and mingle with local girls. The fact most if not all are free lance prostitutes was never an issue. Now someone has complained and alleged underage girls are being employed there and so the business has been raided and closed down.

If they knowingly hired underage staff to work in the bar or restaurant then that is not good at all but methinks the likelihood is the underage staff (if they exist) would have produced faked ID to get their jobs. As for the prostitution, no matter how much some might try and claim it doesn’t go on or if it does then blame the Kano, the truth is that there are more prostitutes catering to locals than foreigners and plenty of officials getting back handers out of it, too.

While I applaud any moves made to fight people trafficking and under age prostitution, being hypocritical about it is wrong. There has always been prostitution in the Philippines and while the country remains in such dire economic straits due to the semi-feudal reality of the society it will never go away. I am a firm believer that prostitution should be legitimate, licensed, policed and taxed as it is in many more enlightened and far less catholic countries around the world.

Proper licensing and health checks along with rigid policing will help fight the people trafficking and the use of underage sex workers and the tax revenue will fund all of these measures and add more to the public purse. But this will never happen while the cardinal rule is that the cardinals rule.

The US has jailed Donald Mathias, 64, a pedophile, for 20 years after he entered into a contract with the mother of two Filipino girls, aged 11 and 12 and then had her film him having sex with the two children. The mother is being prosecuted by Philippines authorities whereas the American was nabbed after his return to the USA.

International agreements between many nations  make it an offense for  citizens of one country to have committed such a crime in another. They can be prosecuted and punished in either the country where the offense took place or upon their return home. While this legislation has been in force for several years it hasn’t been enforced a great deal, possibly due to evidentiary reasons.

This time though, they got one! These evil, selfish, arrogant monsters need to be caught and punished. They will hopefully suffer severely in prison and perhaps begin to understand how horrific their own assaults were upon those poor defenceless children.

The mother who sold her kids to this beast, and signed a contract acknowledging they were his ’sex slaves’, deserves everything she has coming to her. Poverty is no excuse. My inlaws were poor farmers all the time my wife and her five siblings were growing up and such action would never have entered their heads. They would have preferred to die together of hunger than to contemplate such a thing. In fact, I have mentioned this to them and they simply refuse to believe anyone would do it for money, surely they do it because they are possessed by evil spirits?

Perhaps they are because I can’t think of any temporal reason. Poverty is no excuse, do not accept it. Protecting children, even those of parent’s that willingly sell them to fiends such as this one, is everyone’s duty. Use common sense and discretion but never turn a blind eye to this despicable behaviour.

Read the online report here.

It’s fun and games time in the Land Where The Bong Tree Grows, otherwise known as the Philippines. In some areas they are predicting brownouts, which is Filipino spin for a blackout. It started back in Manila in the early 90s as they shut down power in some areas on a semi regular schedule to conserve power. Of course it never happened in the rich suburbs. Since it was done on purpose it wasn’t a blackout as such, which is something that just happens. It was a brown out and everyone knows brown isn’t as dark as black! Pinoy spin at work!

Now they are predicting power shortages in some areas. No coincidence they may be areas where GMA isn’t as popular. After all, if the electronic balloting system doesn’t have electricity it can’t be used. That means ballot boxes and those have a habit of walking away and losing a lot of opposition ballots in the journey. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so obvious and so harmful to the elections.

Not only that there are droughts and water shortages in some places, including wide areas of Mindanao. You can’t mention this on some expat forums because it gives a bad image but the fact is, there are water shortages, power outages and so on.

The main concern is keeping the beer cold enough. Luckily you can buy generators to keep the fridge going. If you have a freezer it will usually keep things frozen for hours without the power going in. So make your own ice. You can always put the ice in the beer glass Pinoy style… or use it to chill the bottles western style. Up to you!

There is a new classified ad site for all things Philippines. Philippine Finder is the place to go for real estate, cars,  items anything that is up for sale for the expat or retiree. There is also a personals section where you can find friends, activity partners or seach for romance.  You can advertise there free of charge. Right now it is a little light on for ads, but so was the Yellow Pages the day the first telephone was installed! The more people who use it to advertise and respond to ads, the better a service it will become.

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.

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!

I love Puerto Galera! PG is on the island of Mindoro which even today is a pretty rugged and inhospitable place despite being relatively close to Manila. PG is a great dive area with some top drift dives. One drift dive I did years ago had me hurtling towards ‘Hole in the Wall’ at 2-3 knots. You have to decide if you are going to abort the drift or shoot for the hole in the wall! Exciting stuff. On the other side there is an abyss that can suck a diver down 50m or more in seconds. The trick is to not venture out too far over the abyss and avoid the down draft. I was holding onto the rocks for grim death when I dived the bowl.

There is another great drift dive where you drift along in one direction for a while then ascend a few metres and you catch a counter current going the other way! Awesome stuff! The currents are strong at times and it pays to eitehr be in good shape or just go with the flow and have the dive boat follow your bubbles!

There are a couple of purpose sunk wrecks in Sabang Bay on the sand where you can feed the fish. Tame by most wreck dive standards but still good fun and a great dive if you have been dry for a while and need a gentle refresher and re-introduction to scuba diving.

The place has plenty of PADI approved schools to choose from right along the waterfront. Most are tied up with affordable accommodation and cold beer and unless it is Chinese New Year you should be able to get a bed without too much trouble.

Getting there from Manila is easy enough with the new South Luzon Expressway cutting quite a bit off the drive time. You can rent a car, hire a taxi or FX or grab the bus from the City State Hotel in Ermita. There are public buses to Batangas, the jumping off point but for first time travellers that might be a tad confusing. At the port there is a major ferry that goes over, tied in with the bus service and you can also take local bancas, or pump boats.

I hired one late one night with two mates and a Filipina and we nearly had a pirate fight in the middle of the channel with the crew when the captain wanted more money. Stick with the main bus and ferry providers and do it in daylight and you won;t have any trouble.

If you don’t scuba dive, then you can learn or, just enjoy the resort atmosphere and the two or three girlie bars and the plethora of restaurants. Venturing further afield and exploring Mindoro is doable, but be prepared for real adventure travelling! Whatever you do, Puerto Galera is a must-visit destination.