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Good question. The thing is the tourists are staying away. Angeles is the deadest it has been since Pinatubo, according to some long term local expats. Who can blame the tourist when he can get his low cost sex and alcohol in Thailand, Cambodia, Mexico and Ecuador or Guatemala. Food’s better and the hassles are much less, plus the infrastructure works better. Plenty of long term expats are selling up and leaving, but just as many seem to be turning up, too.

The thing is, once you find your Filipina and get away from the bar scene the country has a lot to offer. It is a great family oriented environment for bringing up kids. While the education standard is low unless you can afford a top notch private school, it is adequate. Many expats home school their kids. Those without children enjoy the low costs for most things, although living a western standard of life as far as food is concerned means you spend pretty much the same you would back home. Eating native on the other hand can be very inexpensive, if you can hack it. Liquor, cigarettes and other pleasures are cheap and you can get pretty much anything you want and definitely everything you need somewhere in the country.

Corruption and incompetence are everywhere but if you expect this and just make allowances then it doesn’t seem to bother most. You get used to it. You lower your expectations regarding service and comprehension and if you want to be fair, despite the official claims as to how much they speak English, you learn the local dialect and become fluent in it. Most expats never learn more than a few words, which is sad. The other thing you need to do is to socialize with people in a similar income bracket and education level. Most Filipinos have not had the benefits of your education and while the poor can be honest and trustworthy you have to allow for some leeway. The very wealthy don’t need to know you and unless you join the local golf club or Rotary you probably won’t meet too many upper middle class Filipinos, either.

Bottom line you make it what it is. The Philippines is what it is, whether you are there or not. It is up to you to adapt, to accept to adjust, not them. This doesn’t mean you can’t find fault, of course you can. If they were to go to the USA or wherever they would find fault and make comparisons and they should be allowed to do so. We make scathing criticisms here on a regular basis but this site is not aimed at the Filipino, but the foreigner. Forewarned is Forearmed. What we don’t want is someone going there wearing rose tinted glasses, expecting every Filipina to be honest, loyal, loving and beautiful and that they will be welcomed and treated like a knight in shining armor come to make everything right. As Quezon said, “I would rather see the Philippines run badly by Filipinos than run like clockwork by foreigners’. He got his wish but nobody put a gun to your head and made you come here, did they?