Philippines Books

Archive for the ‘Safety’ Category

MANILA, Philippines – A dismissed policeman armed with an automatic rifle seized a bus in the Philippine capital Monday with 25 passengers aboard, most of them Hong Kong tourists, in a bid to demand his reinstatement, police said.

Police sharpshooters took positions around the white-blue-red bus, which was parked near a downtown Manila park, and negotiations to free the hostages were under way, deputy director of Manila police Alex Gutierrez said.

Two of the Hong Kong tourists, both women, were released and were being debriefed by police, Manila police chief Rodolfo Magtibay said. Police had earlier reported that the tourists were from South Korea but later corrected themselves.

Others on the bus included three Filipinos — a driver, a guide and a photographer, Magtibay said.

The hostage-taker, identified as former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, was armed with an M16 rifle. He demanded that he be given back his job on the police force a year after he was fired, Magtibay said.

Mendoza hitched a ride on the bus from the historic walled city of Intramuros and then “declared he is taking the passengers hostage” when the bus reached Jose Rizal Park alongside Manila Bay.

The area also includes the seaside U.S. Embassy and a number of hotels.

The curtains on the bus windows were drawn and live TV footage showed two police negotiators walking to and from the bus and communicating with Mendoza from the window near the driver’s seat.

Magtibay said they were also using the driver’s cell phone to talk to Mendoza.

“We should really resolve this quickly so that it will not have a wider effect,” Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said.

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!

Recently the Chinese courts had the pleasure of the company of six Filipino ‘Bakla’ (basically ‘homosexual inTagalog, Bayut in Visayan but used to include transsexuals) ‘transgenders’. The six Filipino men, posing as Filipino women, drugged and robbed their victims in Shanghai… and were caught. In the old days, pre-Mayor Lim’s Crack Down in Ermita, they were a menace to drunken ‘Kano’s’ wandering down Mabini Street late at night. Called ‘Bini Boys’, they were often viscious and quick to use the knives they all carried if a punter didn’t want their ’services’. Even if he did there was no guarantee he would be left unharmed and unrobbed.

The six that traveled to Shanghai to ply their trade. Basically they pose as prostitutes, then drug and rob their customers. The Philippines Consul in Shanghai has expressed dismay at the growing number of Filipino and Filipinas who are working in the sex industry in China. Of the six arrested, one turned ’state’s evidence and is free while the other five are plying their trade in a Chinese prison.

For more info, click here:

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!

There are many infections one can catch when living or visiting the Philippines. I remember leaving after one trip of just a week in Manila when as the plane reached altitude and pressurised, virtually everybody in the cabin started to cough! Perhaps it was the cleaner air being filtered and pumped through that kicked us all off but I recall very distinctly quite a few minutes of coughing and nose blowing. I was cleaning dark matter from my nostrils for days and had an annoying nose twitch for a week or two until I made conscious effort to get it under control.

Working in Cebu in an office tower we had foreigners coming and going all the time on various three and six month projects. The first week would have them coughing and suffering from a chest infection that I believe was caused by the air-conditioning system. A good dose of anti-biotics bought over the counter from the nearest Mercury Drugstore and they were quickly back in action but just about every new expat employee copped this. If you spend time going into and out of air-conditioned buildings and cabs you are very susceptible to such illnesses. When we lived in Bogo in a fan only house and rarely enjoyed the cool of an air-conditioned environment I rarely had any problems. As soon as we were able to afford air-conditioning and we enjoyed it, this changed and colds and chest infections became more commonplace.

Another minor affliction that causes major distress is ‘pink eye’, ’sore eye’ or conjunctivitis. It passes quickly from person to person via touching what they have touched and then touching your face. I stayed at a resort on Malapascua where first one of the staff had the tissue to the eye, then the owner, then half the guests! You can get drops for this from the drugstore but it is very annoying and can last several days.

I was also able to experience the skin rash so many of us get when we first start to live in the Philippines for longer than a month or two. It is a collection of red spots on the chest and groin that look like freckles or measles. I have no idea what it was but the Quack Doctor healed it by spitting something on the affected area and the next day I was fine! Don’t write off the local Hilot or Quack Doctor. They have been providing health care for the Filipino for centuries and have it pretty well wrapped up as far as local ailments go. They are terrific for muscular and bone setting situations but if you have something that requires micro-surgery or similar, see a western physician.

You might get an ear infection from the pools or sea. If so, get a local to boil some Hilpas weed and then stick it in your ear as hot as you can handle it. It might seem funny to have green goop sticking out of your ear but it works. As soon as it went in I felt it send finger of healing down the tubes and sinuses from ear to nose and mouth. It was amazing as I could feel it clearing out the passages and easing the pain I had felt in the side of my face. My mother-in-law administered it and said she used to give it to her brothers and father when they copped ear aches from cyanide fishing.

As for other forms of infection such as STDs, these are usually treated with a one shot oral prophylactic nowadays and are available without prescription if you know what you want. I do not advise self prescription as I have done it before for myself and it is a bit of a gamble. It costs about ten bucks to see a well qualified (probably US trained) doctor and get the right treatment first time.

The Philippines are a tropical locale. This means there is the risk of catching things that do not exist back home. You might also forego adequate rest and hydration for party time and lots of alcohol. Take care of yourself and the best cure is prevention, as always.

As I have warned all of my readers in depth in my eBook ‘Philippines Survival Handbook’ you are more at risk of getting into serious trouble from the Philippines National Police in some places than the criminals they are supposed to be catching. In Angeles City the rate of scams and set-ups is getting so out of hand there is a new web site pumping out reports and information that is cutting so close to the bone the local authorities are running scared. You can tell that because they are attacking the site and whoever it is who is behind it. As someone once said, ‘they only attack you if they fear you’.

The reality is that so many foreigners are being set up with fake drug busts, under age girls asking to take a shower in your hotel room and so on it is starting to affect tourist numbers. On top of that tourists are getting robbed at gun point and shot for whatever they have on them. At one time it was expats living there for some time who ran afoul of the local heavies that were shot, beaten up, set up or executed. Now it seems the locals are targeting anyone, even those who have been in town only a night or two.

For all the up to the minute news on what’s happening in AC, check out Margarita Station’s Newsletter They have a great article cut from a local newspaper that is worth a read.

If you want to read about the corruption and scams from the website giving bent coppers sleepless nights, check out the Central Luzon Corruption site.

Angeles City is not a place for newbies. It is a serious, wild west style frontier town in that the law is whatever it is at the time and you will always be at a disadvantage. Even long term expats and very street savvy travellers get zapped there. It is an ‘Adult’s Disneyland’ for cheap sex and bars but you can find that nitelife elsewhere without the blatant corruption and risk. All the same, you have to try the place at least once, just keep your wits about you and make sure you have a copy of my ‘Philippines Survival Handbook‘ on your laptop and at least US$2,000 in your ATM for paying your ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card.

Another Scam Story That Ices The Cake For Me!

You would think that, other than the chance of your chosen medical professional having a bad day and removing the wrong kidney, someone who had sworn the Hypocratic Oath would be above scamming a patient? Well not in the Philippines! How about this for a tale of sordid manipulation and outright dishonesty?

Our hero, a long time expat resident of Manila, attends a clinic after reading an advertisement in the local press that this place deals with ailments of the nether regions. He knows what he has been afflicted with and he definitely knows what it isn’t but he feels he needs medical treatment beyond the scope of what you can safely self prescribe.

The clinic appears to be fairly clean and decent, although it does give off the feeling that it had its hey day back in the 80’s. The doctor welcomes the hero and asks what ails him, but before he can offer his prognosis, the doc starts telling him how he was trained in the USA and was once the leading doctor in his field in Manila. He then proudly whips out a photo album and declares how he was the originator of the famous “German Cut”. The photos are a collection of before and after shots of a procedure known as circumcision and clearly extolling the benefits of the “German Cut!”

Our hero is then examined briefly, gives a urine sample and has a swab. He returns to the doctor’s study to be informed he has a vile and loathsome disease, is very ill and so very lucky he came to this particular clinic for treatment. Apparently he hasn’t what he thought he had but instead a “gonorrhoeal infection”. Since he had absolutely no symptoms and little opportunity to have contracted this malady, it was quite a shock. But surely such an emminent physician as one who brought relief and the “German Cut” to the lads of this country wouldn’t make a mistake?

So, somewhat stunned, our hero asks…..”How much?” The doctor turns to the lady who has been present (completely un-introduced) during the entire consultation. She is introduced not as a fellow medical professional as the hero envisaged but rather the clinic’s accountant! All matters relating to money are her domain owing to the philanthropic nature of the doctor who, if it were up to him, would perform his miracles absolutley scott free and thus soon be destitute.

The doctor does outline the treatment which consists of a series of injections (no doubt into the buttocks) with medicine only the doctor can obtain but which will clear the hero of this dreaded and vile, loathsome ailment for sure. And the German Cut of course. Can’t forget that!

Our hero stumbles after the accountant and sits in her office. She calmly steeples her fingers and tells him the German Cut is a meer six thousand peso. The life saving injections will be a little more, say twelve thousand? Our hero is aghast. Eighteen thousand pesos! Over US$300! He tells her his girlfriend had a baby born for half that amount not so long ago and that treating gonorrhoeal infections by injection went out twenty years ago. Current treatment is a single oral antibiotic, or at the most a course of oral antibiotics. He asks for a prescription for same, pays P500 for the consultation and leaves. The prescription includes a cream he later discovers was found to be useless, for treating what he has, over twenty years before. He takes the course of antibiotics which cost a couple of thousand, just to be on the safe side, but he knows he hasn’t any gonorrhoeal infection.

Finally he goes to see the number one urologist in Manila to be diagnosed, as he originaly believed, to have a mild yeast infection called Balinitis, caused by diet, humidity and so on. That is treated by an effective cream within a few days for P500 consultation and P245 for the cream. When he mentions his experience to the specialist, before he can name the doctor involved he is told by the specialist who it indeed was! In fact the doctor’s father is a known sleeping pill addict who will try and get a dozen prescriptions of Demerol or whatever it was and the doctor himself has been known to circumcise anyone he can lay his scalpel on to pay for his gambling habits!

His diagnosis of gonorrhoea was totally false and the course of injections would have been totally unnecessary not to mention painful and expensive. In other words, he was a total charlatan. Since he had survived so long it was probably not worth the effort to try and have him struck off. Even if successful he would simply hang up his shingle somewhere else. Our hero was glad he finally received proper treatment but wonders how many unsuspecting people with no knowledge of medicine have been ripped off and carved up by the discoverer of the infamous German Cut?

(Be wary of any Doctor offering the ‘German Cut’, especially if they have a practise in Cubao.)

Taking A Look At The Cost Of A Pregnancy

Last month we took a peek at how much it costs to leave this mortal coil. This month we’ll start at the beginning and discuss bringing a new Filipino into the world. I have only been responsible for one new mouth to feed in this burgeoning land, but I have done my research and it is interesting how the costs and what you get for your peso varies from place to place. I can’t comment on Manila, although I have been led to believe the situation is pretty similar and prices fairly consistent.

So, you and the Asawa are about to enjoy the blessed event, you’re in the family way, she has a bun in the oven or, as they say in Visayan, she is Buntis! Well done but now you have to suffer the mood swings of the first trimester, the incredible urges of the second trimester and the dragged out interminable length of the third trimester! Personally I wouldn’t want to suffer through that again and I remind the Asawa of this whenever the subject arises. Since she is a Filipina and we only have two kids (I inherited a lovely daughter) this subject does arise often. She also thinks I would have an illegitimate child with another woman providing it is son! As far fetched as that sounds to us foreigners, it is perfectly reasonable to a Filipina.

If you think you are too old to become a Daddy (again perhaps), then stay away from the Philippines. I know men who have fathered at the age of 73 and men hitting retirement age at 65 and being a new parent at the same time is not at all a rare occurrence here. Some might argue how fair that is for the child, will they ever really know their father? Who knows? People are living longer these days and if having a child with a woman 30 or 40 years your junior keeps you feeling young, who is to say what is and isn’t right? 

What is important is that if you have the child, make sure you look after the poor little tyke! That care starts as soon as you know the Asawa is pregnant. Women are funny creatures and I haven’t all the answers but I have learnt that what might seem trivial to us mere males is of vital significance to a pregnant Filipina. Keep in mind they may be sensitive and insecure to begin with and all of a sudden they are burdened with bringing a new life into the world. She wouldn’t be the first woman to wonder if you are going to stick around until and then after the big day! Some reassurance, no matter how trite and banal it might sound to your male ears, just might make all the difference.

Remember women go through some major hormonal swings when pregnant, it is a big deal after all. You really have to give them a lot of leeway and put up with a great deal of BS, for want of a more apt term! Not just the regular female pregnant BS, but the stuff that has her wearing black bra and panties to keep the Onggu’s away, or stuffing leaves in the window sills and pinning black patches onto her clothing. I must admit the Juju works as we didn’t get one Onggu coming around wanting to rip into the foetus! Some of these Onggu’s actually cut themselves in half and fly away into the night, then crash through the roof and drop onto the sleeping mum to be and devour the baby! Not worth the risk! Get the black knickers and keep them handy!

You also need to keep away from old women down the market. Many of these crones are actually Onggu’s themselves and love to disrupt the pregnancy by touching the swelling belly. They cluck and make cooing noises but in reality they are sucking the vitality out of the unborn! Don’t let it happen and make sure she has her Anting Anting pinned to her black bra!

Now, should you make it to the big day, you will have had to attend a pre-natal every month. Or maybe not! Some women can’t afford it or don’t want the expense, others will rely on the Barangay Quack Doctor or local midwife. Personally I have a lot of faith in these midwives. They have seen just about everything there is to see when it comes to Ob-Gyn work! Forget Stanford Medical School or wherever, these old hags have been in the front line for generations.

Our local Quack successfully turned our baby when it was threatening a breech presentation and the rather expensive, US trained Ob-Gyn specialist in Cebu was too scared to risk trying this. Of course I was left in ignorant bliss about what was happening to my child or maybe I would have stuck my fat foreigner face in where it turned out not to be needed.

Now at first we wanted the local doctor in the province to handle the pre-natal and delivery but she refused. It seems us foreigners have a reputation of complaining about everything and not finding local standards up to snuff. Actually, for a rural practise I have always felt Dr Dublin runs a pretty tight ship up there in Daanbantayan. Anyway, we had already cancelled our Cebu Doctors’ Hospital Specialist after the breech presentation fiasco and we didn’t think we’d make it down to Cebu in time anyway. Or else we would have to hang around in a hotel there for a week racking up the bills. Plus when I told the Asawa she could spend whatever she saved on some nice jewellery she was quite happy to look for something cheaper than the P25,000 (starting price and providing here were no complications) Cebu Doctor’s were charging. If she needs a caesarean and quite often the wives of foreigners do, that will set you back at least P50,000 or so at Chung Hua or Cebu Doctors’.

There are packages in Cebu at the Cebu Maternity Hospital from about P10,000 and this includes all the pre-natal check ups, ultra sounds and so on. A friend of ours insisted his wife have their child there as it was a maternity hospital and not a hospital full of sick people. If you have seen your average Filipino hospital you would understand his point. Basic hygiene is ignored as money for cleaners and maintenance is pocketed by the administrators and nursing staff are too proud of their professional status to clean walls and windows. Or do much else other than stand around and chat!

My sister in law had a P10,000 package deal at the Vellez Hospital but when she had complications and later, tragically died, the limitations of the “package” became evident. We could not move her to a private, aircon room because then we would have to pay for the doctor’s visits. Even though the room was right next to the public one she had been in for days! The rigid adherence to ridiculous “hospital policy” amidst emergency situations and surrounded by a total lack of professionalism really does make us foreigners wild. Perhaps Dr Dublin knew a thing or two I didn’t?

In the end we spent around P12,000 and had the baby delivered at Medellin Base Hospital. We had to buy our own delivery kit for the doctor and her team to use in the delivery room! This cost a few thousand but the local drug stores know what’s on the list and stock everything. Make sure you insist on pain killers for the wife for before and after delivery, the word epidural was unknown to the midwife! The doctor had heard of the term but since few of her patients could afford such luxury, she never wrote a script for it!

Be there and make sure you know what is supposed to happen because not all of the staff may know much about nursing, first aid, basic health and hygiene etc. Just because they graduated nursing school doesn’t mean much in my experience. I studied my US Army Special Forces Medical Handbook, an absolute must for any Expat! When the nurse brought my newborn daughter to me, I knew enough to know she had fluid on the lung and needed to be drained and ventilated. I turned her over and fluid poured out of her! Frightening.

My oldest daughter was born at home with just my father in law assisting. It thankfully went without a hitch as the midwife was delayed and of course, it was virtually free. However, although babies have been born since Adam was a lad, maybe I’m too much of a modern day wimp. Pay the money and get the best medical care for your wife and new born that you can afford. And be thankful you can afford it.

A Few Thoughts On The Importance Of The Expat Exercise Plan.

I came back from two years of living in the Philippines 12kg (26lb) heavier than when I had left Australia. I was several inches wider and I could hardly tie my shoe laces without panting. I am sure my blood pressure was up there somewhere I didn’t want to go and I know I was in line for the hereditary diabetes since I was knocking back 2 litres of Coke a day, the cola drink not the narcotic.

I was in bad shape and it hadn’t happened overnight. Two years of sedentary living, even when I was working it was pushing a mouse and keyboard around for a living, had gradually pushed me up and over the self set bounds of comfort. I smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day, slept badly and snored like a freight train. Something had to give sooner or later.

After the first week of stuffing my face with real bread, enjoying not sweating, ever, shivering and scraping ice off the windscreen of the car, I got to work on myself. First thing was to get an exercise routine happening so it would become a habit.

Just as not exercising can become a habit, the reverse is true and far better for you. The secret is to take it so easy to begin with you are champing at the bit to get sweaty and really work out. Everything is about pleasure and pain, so associate more pleasure with exercising and more pain with being a couch potato and you have the motivation thing beat!

I use the Royal Canadian Air Force 5BX program, or at least my version of it. 5BX and 10BX were the fitness fads of the sixties at some point although originally developed as an exercise regime for flight crews. My version is you pick five simple exercises and do them five times each as soon as you get out of bed. I did a waist spin, a deep knee bend, a side stretch, an arm swing and a bend over and touch my toes set of five each side. At first it hurt and I could hardly do these five simple exercises!

Gradually, each day got easier but I resisted the temptation to try and rip along to 10BX. The regular, simple, limited exercise started to not only get me in the habit of doing SOMETHING, but it got the blood flowing and stopped the foot cramps and other problems lack of circulation had been causing. Sitting in front of a computer can bring on pain in the feet, cramps in the stomach, all sorts of weird ills and aches all due to not using muscle groups. Use it or lose it!

The next thing I did was quit smoking. I had known that going from fifty cents a pack to ten dollars a pack would be both a shock and a good incentive to quit. In the three and something months since I last smoked, I have not smoked 2300 plus cigarettes! Can you imagine laying out over two thousand cigarettes in front of you and saying, ok, stick each one in your face, set it alight and suck in the carcinogens! So far I have not spent (can’t really say saved as where is the money?) AUD$920 (US$644 or P36,000). Awesome!

How did I do it? Firstly I had nicotine patches (three of them) but I never used them. They can cost as much as the cigarettes and can be just as hard to quit as they are merely a different method of nicotine delivery. I just got my head around it and associated more pleasure with quitting and more pain with staying a smoker. The money factor helped, especially when I rationalised I was here, away from my wife and kids to make money, not set fire to it. Believe me, the mental factor is the major one and unless you really have a handle on your personal motivation for quitting, it ain’t going to happen!

Then I had to look at my diet. That came about after I lost a sedentary job selling cars and got another, more active job working with road repair crews. One of my old martial arts students owns the company and two of the old gang work for him. They found me just when I needed a job and, unknowingly, a change of lifestyle. Funny how these things happen!

I went onto a low carbohydrate diet, cut out sugar, bread, potatoes, rice, noodles etc. Ate lots of meat and fat and suffered for the first two weeks as my body cleansed itself of the toxins and sugar. I was already sleeping better from quitting smoking, but now I slept even better still without the glucose spikes and sugar rushes. Check out the Atkins Diet for yourselves, it may be what you need, it may not. I’m not a nutritionist or a health professional, I’m just telling you what worked for me!

So now I am back in Cebu several kilos lighter, cleansed of my nicotine addiction and feeling so much more active and physically fit than ever before. I am walking everyday, using the wonderful pavement (sidewalk) the Cebu South Road provides, the only decent walking track in the entire province! I am starting to get back into a Boxing Workout (I used to be a professional Boxing Trainer and before that an Inter-Service Heavyweight Boxer in the Army) I drink only Diet Coke or water, have less caffeine each day and each one of those has half the sugar they used to have. Once or twice a week I drink booze and every now and then I eat whatever the heck I want, then get back on track!

Not eating bread is easy here, the same goes for potatoes and the rice I consume is far less than before and always washed for starch after cooking. I eat less each meal and move more and the weight is staying off. More importantly, I have more energy for doing stuff with my kids. So many of us expats marry women half or more our own age and then start a new, young family. We owe it to them and ourselves to be around to enjoy the family and the new lease on life as long as we can. Taking better care of yourself is the first step. It really has made a world of difference for me.