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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.

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.

The poorer countries of the world are attractive to many looking for an affordable place to call home. Somewhere that their retirement dollar will stretch to provide them with a decent standard of living, close to what they were used to back home when they were making a regular living. Sadly the burgeoning baby boomer retiree population is finding life in the First World a tad too expensive on what is left of their 401Ks, superannuation, pensions and what not.

So their attention turns to the third world where they can get more bang for their buck. The cost of living has risen in the Philippines just as it has everywhere else in the world. Risen sharply in many ways. I wonder how the average Filipino family manages, but then they have managed for generation after generation, so why should the current fiscal situation be any different?

If you want to live like a white rajah, then expect to pay for it! If you are happy living on a basic diet of dried fish and rice then you can get by on very little indeed. For most of us, though, we need to tread he middle path. You can live on US$500 a month in the provinces but it will be like camping in many respects. Forget airconditioning, driving your own car and going out to dinner all the time. This is you and the Filipina of your choice living in a small, rented house or apartment, shopping mostly at the local market and rarely buying supermarket items. You don’t travel around, you might have cable TV or internet access but not both and you don’t call home very often.

For US$1000 a month you get to enjoy some imported foods, turn on the airconditioning, drive a small, used car and go out a few times every month. For US$1500 you can live pretty much wherever you want to and live well and for US$2000 a month I’d say you can live in Manila and live well. Nice apartment, domestic helper, good food, lots of entertainment, everything you want.

How much do you live on now? How well do you live on that? How would you like to live in the Philippines?

Ukay Ukay is the Visayan term for second hand, specifically clothes. People make a decent living sending boxes of second hand clothes to relatives in the Philippines from the USA and elsewhere for resale. I have several pairs of Ukay Ukay shorts as trying to get large enough anything on the local market is a trial. Hell, it is hard enough in Australia where the average person is closing in on the average sized Amurricun with every bite of their fast food!

A Balikbayan Box as they are called (Balikbayan means returning citizen, basically) sent from the USA via LBC or one of the many private freight forwarders that handle USA-Phils business, costs around US$100 or so. That box is a tea chest sized carton that can be stuffed with hundreds of dollars worth of second hand clothes. Stock you can collect by asking around the neighborhood or raiding the charity dumpsters! If you assign a value of fifty cents to every item you can quickly figure out the break even point of the exercise.

For those with access to larger shipping containers at better prices then you can be even more profitable. For us though, we feel it is simpler and more effective to send our relatives cash they can convert into stock for their tempura carts and then onsell that. But that is another article for another time.

Not the same person of course as you can only be murdered once, however Angeles City has claimed another Kano ¹ victim. Apparently the body of a 55 year old German resident was found dead in his Angeles City house, his dogs poisoned also. The details of this latest murder are not relevant for this article, what is of importance is that people take note that another foreign resident has been murdered in the Philippines. This man was single but did frequent the bars of Balibago, who wouldn’t if he were living there as a resident and unattached? He may have upset one of the working lasses. He also ran tours to Mt Pinatubo, so perhaps he had business rivals?

Whatever the motive, the end result is another tragic death. The Philippines is a great place to vacation and even retire to but it is not like Kansas, Dorothy! It has its own rules and they can be obscure and harsh. People there play for keeps and are all too willing to kill for what we would consider the most juvenile of reasons. As in the land of the blind where the one eyed man is King, so too in a land of extreme poverty a few bucks can make you worth the risk of killing.

The police, particularly the Angeles City Police, are corrupt. You would be wasting your time going to them for help as the odds are in favour of them being behind most of the crime aimed at foreigners. The elected officials are no more pristine or pure and the entire culture is systemically corrupt. Which is partly what makes it such an exciting place to live!

With the ready and willing and very affordable sex on tap, the cheap, plentiful and good quality beer and rum and the tropical heat and throbbing disco beat, this place is JUMPIN’! Just watch your back, watch your mouth and watch who you trust! Better still, buy my eBook ‘Philippines Survival Handbook’ and take notes before you go and take care while you’re there! Who wants to live forever?

1. Kano – short version of Americano is the term many Filipinos use to describe all “white” people [↩]

I always wonder why, with so many goats running around, nobody drinks goat’s milk or makes goat’s cheese? The Philippines are ripe for some Mediterranean or Middle Eastern migrant to come in, raise some goats an start making top class Fetta! I think with some marketing and education the locals could be made to try the products and then hopefully start to buy them. However the big money would have to be in exporting the dairy products.

Even with a professional, best-practise standard facility, it would be cheaper to raise the animals and make the dairy products, then export them to the Middle East, in the Philippines than many other places. Land, stock, overheads, labor… it is all so much cheaper.

I would find a cheap location, probably one that has some problems with the NPA (New People’s Army) and that would provide me with a location that is affordable and sure to have many people in the vicinity looking for employment. They would be rural folk who I could train to manage the basic tasks of animal husbandry and basic dairy production. Providing you took care of the staff the NPA would leave you alone as it would be counter to their stated manifesto to interfere. You might also find NPA activity would diminish once there are viable employment options available. When you can actually earn an income and feed your family there is less incentive to remain in a jungle camp wondering when the Army are going to come and bomb your ass.

You could arrange to agist the goats at several farms in the area, in fact every family could be issued a few to manage and then drive them to the dairy to be milked. You would need to oversee how they graze the animals and insist on a decent standard of fodder for your ruminants. As well as the dairy, you could butcher and produce goat meat small goods. Combine this with a rabbit farm and you are making some serious money, helping the impoverished rural people and earning export dollars. It can be done but of course, this being the Philippines it won’t be as easy as it is to write about it!

I read today that an Australian businessman and 12 year expat resident of the Philippines was murdered, stabbed to death by thieves who stole $42,000 worth of cash and jewellery from his Manila home. While this is a tragedy and quite uncommon, it does happen often enough for us to pause and think about our personal security.

There are two basic times of greatest risk; the first time tourist and the long term expat who thinks he has it all under control. The reality is that you can never have a place like the Philippines ‘under control’. You are to a degree at the mercy of the country and the culture as well as the various members of the community.

It would be wrong to comment on the murder based just on the few details included in the news report however it is appropriate to make some general observations. First of all whether you are just visiting or live there permanently, keep a low profile. Do not be like the locals and flaunt your wealth, even if it is modest wealth by our standards. Whereas the local big noises can drive around in mirror tinted SUVs and wear lots of bling, you have neither the family connections or the armed guards to back it all up!

Members of The StreetWise Philippines Club can access a terrific documentary about a British businessman who married an Angeles bargirl, had two kids with her and then she had him murdered by her Filipino boyfriend. A tragic story in many ways and a sober reminder that not everybody thinks the same way you do when it comes to what is worth killing someone over!

Common sense is called for but sadly it often isn’t all that common, either by first time excitement or long time lethargy. Ego and complacency will get you into trouble, perhaps even killed. Invest thirty bucks in the ‘Philippines Survival Handbook’ and take heed of the wealth of collected personal experience that volume contains. It could be the cheapest insurance you ever bought!

A Very Filipino Way Of Doing Business From The Bottom To The Top!

Whenever I go to the local market with the Asawa, I love to wander around the meat and fish section.  I love the squalor and the flies and the noise and total lack of any lip service being paid to basic hygiene regulations.  It is so Filipino!

I have my Suki for meat and another for chicken and one I go to for fish and seafood’s.  The Asawa has her own for vegetables, fruit and dry goods, spread around the market. A suki, for the uninitiated, is a regular provider of whatever it is you are buying.  I think to be  technically correct, you as the customer are actually the suki, but in typically Filipino fashion the word is used in either direction and you call the store you go to regularly your suki!

We have a suki for bottled water.  Our first suki would always deliver in the morning when we were out, despite having been told numerous times we wouldn’t be there to take the “gallons” (those large
bottles of water usually seen in the office back home but commonplace in every home here) until after noon.  Their insistence we change our routine to match theirs plus the fact it took six weeks to get them to sell us a table top stand for the bottles meant I spat the dummy one day and found a new suki!  They realized the error of their ways and tried to regain the business but the damage had been done!

Changing your suki is not something you undertake lightly.  The very fabric of commercial society here is built upon the relationship between buyer and seller.  When you look at any row of Filipino market stalls or shops, you may notice how everybody in a row is selling exactly the same thing.  The plastic bucket shops are all over there. The hardware stalls are all over there, the next row is all cloth and old clothes.  Not only are all the stalls for one line of merchandise in a row, they all look identical.  Every stall has the same goods displayed exactly the same way.  As if there is a pattern laid down by law as to how to display those goods!  Woe betide you if you do it any other way or set up amongst the wrong stalls.

The prevailing wisdom appears to be that you increase your chances of making some money if you are where people will go to look for the range of goods you offer.  If the hardware stores were to spread themselves around the town then maybe one of them would wither on the vine as few people might find them. By having all of the hardware stores in the one spot, then it is guaranteed that anyone who needs hardware MUST gothere.  Brilliant!

So why would they shop at this store instead of that one if they all offer the same goods in the same location?  The only answer I have ever received for that question has always been the same;  because you know the store owner, or are a friend or,…they are your SUKI!  Personal relationships are very  important to Filipinos and without them your business is pretty well doomed to fail.

Once you start buying regularly from one store and they take on Suki status then the suki will lose face if you are seen purchasing elsewhere in the same market.  Other store owners will know your suki is someone else and they will usually refrain from hassling you. Poaching customers has been known to lead to arguments, fights and even stabbings! 

You should be able to expect a discount (walay hang yoo) from  your suki.  Of course over time the actual discount might decrease as both parties become comfortable with the relationship and outright price is no longer as important as the trust displayed and enjoyed between parties.  This is a factor of Filipino business that many foreigners never grasp.  They expect a good deal right from the beginning, yet what have they done to deserve that favouritism? 

Anywhere in Asia there is a similar attitude to time.  Time being invested to really get to know each other and develop trust and a rapport that will span generations.  It is a long term view that we foreigners are coming up against way down the path the other parties involved have been traveling for perhaps centuries! The term interloper comes to mind and that is what we are in many ways.

Break that down to the local food market level of commerce and the relationship may take less time to build but the concept remains the same.  If you apply the same mindset to more expensive business
ventures here then it is easy to develop guidelines.  Firstly, don’t expect the best terms right off the bat, give the other guy time to get to know you and like you.  Secondly, never show your anger or emotion, it shames you and the other party and achieves nothing worthwhile. Thirdly, if you are being ripped off, don’t be in too much of a hurry to take your business elsewhere.

This goes for the meat suki too.  I had one who was putting the old thumb on the scales when weighing my beef tenderloin every Thursday.  I knew I was being short changed somehow, yet the challenge was how to turn this around to my advantage as I loved my beef and there was only one other stall that sold it.  My solution was to negotiate an extra piece thrown in after the kilo or two was weighed and agreed upon. This let the suki think they were doing me a favour and building rapport while I was actually getting what I was paying for.  The end result was they finally caught on and stopped thumbing the scales and I eventually stopped insisting on my extra chunk.  They got the message that I knew they were ripping me off, yet nobody lost face and business carried on as usual.

In some ways, dealing with your suki is good training for dealing with so much that you will confront in this country.  Going head to head will only have you losing time after time.  You may think you won, you made your point, you showed them but the reality is Filipino’s, like most Asians, take the long term view in many things.  There is the short term immediate gratification often exploited by the lesser educated and those who figure they will never have to deal with you again but on the whole the opposite is more often the case. Choose your suki wisely, and then stick with them.  Work out your differences in ways other than the typical western yelling and posturing and you are sure to come out a winner in the long term.

THAT’S THE BUSINESS FOR ME!

I will soon be releasing my StreetWise Business In The Philippines Guide and looking at the FIVE most successful businesses for Expats to engage in after relocation or retirement here.  Each one of these
businesses are proven performers with success stories and anecdotes given for each of the five.

My personal favourite, once you move away from the province and piggies, is the Bed Spacer!  I love this business opportunity and I know several expats who will be miffed for me bringing it to the attention of the world at large but that’s what happens when you make your living providing information on viable businesses rather than working them!

Actually, as we go to press I am in the throes of creating a Bed Spacer business exactly as I suggest in the Guide.  This is the proven formula for success here in the Philippines and while I don’t want to kill sales of the Guide, I will pass on some of the formula here, for FREE!

Firstly, what is a Bed Spacer?  Good question.  A bed spacer is a person who rents a bed space.  Originally it was simply a space, a place to lay a mat down and sleep upon it.  Over time it has evolved to mean more than just that, although there are still many places that offer little more than a roof over your head and a guranteed piece of floor big enough to spread the bamboo mat upon!

Some bed spaces are shared rooms or cubicles, others are single, private spaces that offer a modicum of privacy and the illusion of security.  Many include electricity and water, which usually means a tap from which you can obtain water for you hand laundry and also a light, perhaps a power point for a fan.  More upmarket places may also offer a fan, aircon (very rare) and TV, usually shared in a common area.

Luckily Filipinos like to be in groups and so communal living of this sort is preferred over the western style of single people living by themselves in single apartments and rooms.  Depending where you are and what social strata you are supplying, bed spaces can be basic or quite
comfortable.

The business end of providing bed spaces to bed spacers is simple.  If you have a bed room you can often partition it and put in bunks and provide accommodation for, say four people.  Each pays P1000 a month and you make P4000 for hiring out a room.  If you were to rent the entire house you might make that much, maybe less in some places.

If you have several rooms you can partition and rent out, then you multiply the income.  But wait, there is another secret which lets you make three times as much per person from the same space!  I’ll keep that one for the StreetWise Business In The Philippines Guide, but it is a genuine proposition that is neither illegal nor immoral!

The ideal bed space business would have a small apartment block type building holding at least 20 bed spacers.  Each pay P1000-P1500 per month for their room and light and water.  There is a laundry area for them to use and a small kitchen facility shared among the tenants.  You also add value and incerease returns by offering them food from your small carenderia and bbq stand. As well, there is a sari-sari store that sells them their toiletries and other consumables.

The smart thing is to set up near a college, hospital or major factory so that there is a need for accommodation in your area. Position, position, position!  A vital factor to any business and no surprise to anyone who has given the subject even a passing thought.  Find the right location, not the right building.  You can always knock it down and rebuild for a fraction of what it would cost to entice a major factory to set up next door to your perfect apartment complex!

You should also look at providing a jeepney with a regular schedule to take them to and from the college or factory.  Not only does this increase income, but it increases their dependance upon you.  No matter who takes their peso, they will have to spend money each month on room, food, personal things and transportation.  If you can package them up and offer them at a competitive rate, then why not get every peso they have to spend?  You don’t have to rip them off, just provide a  quality, competitive option. 

Here’s a tip straight from the Guide.  If competition gets tough, you can maintain your rental rates while others engage in price wars, slashing the accommodation to ribbons and putting themselves out of business.  How?  Through increasing value!  You throw in the jeepney ride to and from work, saving them however many peso a month!  You write off any losses against what the jeepney makes the rest of the day plying its regular route.

Still not keeping the spaces filled? Offer free meals from the carenderia.  Two for one, all you can eat on Fridays, Tuesday Two Peso Time, use your imagination and offer more value and so keep your customers happier than if they went elsewhere! The other no brainer is to offer clean, safe accomodation.  Don’t  rent to men.  Just Filipina’s!  Far kinder on the eye and you don’t have  to break up fights induced by too much Tuba on paynight.  Filipinas are more reliable and more likely to pay on time and less likely to steal or damage the premises.  Of course there is always the exception and I
am not saying all Filipino’s are bad tenants, but it is simpler and much less risk of giving yourself brain damage if you simply rent to Filipinas only.

Setting up your bed spacer is fairly simple.  If you aren’t handy  with tools then you can always negotiate the local carpenter to fix up some partition walls, maybe build in some bunks and storage and generally make maximum use of space.  Think cruise ship cabin to get those ideas happening about sensible storage and maximum use of space and remember the renters are a lot smaller than you!

I think the minimum space per person is 2sqm, providing there is a common area they can lounge in, watch tv, chismis etc.  2sqm is 2m long by 1m wide, not much space but it can be comfortable and remember it is only sleeping space really.  So long as they have some room to stand and change in and somewhere to spread out and relax, the actual personal sleeping space doesn’t have to be too much bigger.

I like to work on having one CR between four to six.  Anymore and you really need a second toilet and separate to the other and the shower/washing facility.  Kitchen space really only needs to be a bench
with a two burner gas cooker on it, perhaps a water boiler for hot water for noodles and some shelf space.  I would discourage cooking in the rooms to prevent vermin and other infestations, not to mention you would rather they eat at the carenderia!

How much will it cost to get this business off the ground?  It all depends on the building and location.  You may have an existing venue or you may want to locate a promising position and buy or build there. I have several people interested in buying Lease Holdings on suitable properties near a major hospital which will see their US$5000 come back to them with up to 50% profit in just five years, all secured against the best guarantee of the lot, Real Property!  My estimations so far show a potential 12% per annum return, which is about the average for the stock market or real estate back home, the kicker being they can get in for as little as $5000.  If they change their minds they can always pull out and their initial investment is backed by the value of the property.  So long as they can wait until the premises are sold or someone else buys out their share, they are not going to lose a penny.

Other readers may have their own ideas and already know of a property that would be just right for conversion to bed spaces. Day to day management of the business is minimal, very similar to renting the entire house out.  You collect the rents on pay day, keep an eye out for possible repairs needing to be done and make sure nobody runs off with the fittings.  Part of my personal plan will be to offer reduced rentals to “Den Mothers” who will act as my managers and keep the  rest in line, or at least give me early warning of trouble.

All in all, bed spaces for bed spacers is the best business opportunity for many retirees and those relocating to the Philippines to be with their Asawa.  Unless you enter into a Lease Arrangement such as the one I am offering to some of my readers, you will need to have the deed to the property in the name of a Filipino.  If this isn’t an issue, then it is a great way to give the asawa, or her family, an income source. You can buy properties in fairly suitable locations from as little as US$10,000, maybe even less.  ROI is usually three years but it can be sooner depending on the way the business is operated.

If you are looking at options, give Bed Spacers some thought.  Feel free to order my ‘Making A Living In The Philippines’ Guide!  If you want more information about my Bed Space Lease Holding, email me
personally at perrygamsby@yahoo.com