Other Areas

[Red Kilt]

I empathize with you GE.

And still they ignore everything foreigners say and suggest about how to make it "more fun in the Philippines".

I just wish some enlightened Filipino soul with senior credentials in TOURISM would invite people (seriously) to suggest ways to make things different (which means better).

If they started with airports that would be good.

I live here. I plan to stay here. I just hate the "head-in-the-sand" attitude.

It is so simple to improve so many things if only someone would listen and then act.

[WestCoast1]

the inspector; a full-fledged police officer, meticulously went through all of the items she found, though she missed an entire compartment, and then apparently found me fit for travel. two minutes later, boarding pass in hand, i proceeded to the "departure hall," lovingly cooled by a fan that would be more appropriate to a small bedroom. but wait! i wasn't allowed to sit on the lovingly crafted php50 plastic seats before passing "final inspection," which is located about 2 meters from the "preliminary inspection." what a surprise! the xray machine and metal detector were broken here as well, so re-open the luggage and the hand-carry. this time, they confirep001ed a lighter, sternly admonishing me that lighters weren't permitted, while obliviious to the other 3 lighters packed in my hand-carry.

what a country! you'v got to love it.

ge

exact same procedure 2 years ago, and 5 years ago. five years ago there were only 3 flights per week (not per day). the initial entry wasn't as bad as you describe, but there was no x-ray machine or metal detector. two nice older ladies opened both my suitcases, took out every item (including toiletries) , and hand-inspected everything. it was about 5 minutes watching them eyeball my stuff, including my toothbrush (as if a white man's mouth somehow differently effects the shape of the bristles). and, they did not use medical rubber gloves (who knows how often the wash their hands). once inside, i found only 5 other passengers passed into the "departure hall" area (one was kano) , and my luggage (like yours) , had to be opened and hand-inspected again. yawn. at least in the butuan airport there are two evap-coolers cranking away.

[GoodEnough]

Sorry guys, for the double post. I've tried to remove one of them twice, but the system will not cooperate.

[GoodEnough]

i arrived here yesterday from cebu, together with a carry-on and a small checked bag that wouldn't fit into the overhead rack of the tiny, cramped cebu pacific plane. no matter. the flight was only 45 minutes and my bags and i arrived intact. one night at the tavern hotel with a seaview room wasn't bad. the place is basic but clean and the oceanfront terrace attached to my room was serenity itself.

however, as i write this from the airport waiting area, having checked in for the flight back to cebu, i find my serenity disturbed by the check-in from hell. understand that the airport is about as big as a good size living room, so space is at a premium for the two or three flights a day that serve this miniscule city on the northernmost tip of mindanao. a crowd of at least 5 people (maybe 4) was waiting for the narrow, closet-size door to open that would allow passengers inside to begin the check-in from hell experience. the guy guarding the door, in his perfervid desire to prevent terrorist acts, or perhaps just to demonstrate his bloated sense of self importance, scrutiized tickets and ids like they were the rosetta stone and he had just discovered the archeological treasure, of the century, thus turning what should have been a ten second per person process into a minute or more. once the rent-a-cop had bestowed his grudging approval, we proceeded to baggage xray and metal detection screening; except wait a minute,"we used to have an x ray machine and a metal detector but they've been broken since the beginning of the millenium." so, hand inspection and "body search" were the hallmarks of the day, thus turning what should have been a ten second, tolerable experience into three or four minutes from hell.

the inspector; a full-fledged police officer, meticulously went through all of the items she found, though she missed an entire compartment, and then apparently found me fit for travel. two minutes later, boarding pass in hand, i proceeded to the "departure hall," lovingly cooled by a fan that would be more appropriate to a small bedroom. but wait! i wasn't allowed to sit on the lovingly crafted php50 plastic seats before passing "final inspection," which is located about 2 meters from the "preliminary inspection." what a surprise! the xray machine and metal detector were broken here as well, so re-open the luggage and the hand-carry. this time, they confirep001ed a lighter, sternly admonishing me that lighters weren't permitted, while obliviious to the other 3 lighters packed in my hand-carry.

what a country! you'v got to love it.

ge

[GoodEnough]

i arrived here yesterday from cebu, together with a carry-on and a small checked bag that wouldn't fit into the overhead rack of the tiny, cramped cebu pacific plane. no matter. the flight was only 45 minutes and my bags and i arrived intact. one night at the tavern hotel with a seaview room wasn't bad. the place is basic but clean and the oceanfront terrace attached to my room was serenity itself.

however, as i write this from the airport waiting area, having checked in for the flight back to cebu, i find my serenity disturbed by the check-in from hell. understand that the airport is about as big as a good size living room, so space is at a premium for the two or three flights a day that serve this miniscule city on the northernmost tip of mindanao. a crowd of at least 5 people (maybe 4) was waiting for the narrow, closet-size door to open that would allow passengers inside to begin the check-in from hell experience. the guy guarding the door, in his perfervid desire to prevent terrorist acts, or perhaps just to demonstrate his bloated sense of self importance, scrutiized tickets and ids like they were the rosetta stone and he had just discovered the archeological treasure, of the century, thus turning what should have been a ten second per person process into a minute or more. once the rent-a-cop had bestowed his grudging approval, we proceeded to baggage xray and metal detection screening; except wait a minute,"we used to have an x ray machine and a metal detector but they've been broken since the beginning of the millenium." so, hand inspection and "body search" were the hallmarks of the day, thus turning what should have been a ten second, tolerable experience into three or four minutes from hell.

the inspector; a full-fledged police officer, meticulously went through all of the items she found, though she missed an entire compartment, and then apparently found me fit for travel. two minutes later, boarding pass in hand, i proceeded to the "departure hall," lovingly cooled by a fan that would be more appropriate to a small bedroom. but wait! i wasn't allowed to sit on the lovingly crafted php50 plastic seats before passing "final inspection," which is located about 2 meters from the "preliminary inspection." what a surprise! the xray machine and metal detector were broken here as well, so re-open the luggage and the hand-carry. this time, they confirep001ed a lighter, sternly admonishing me that lighters weren't permitted, while obliviious to the other 3 lighters packed in my hand-carry.

what a country! you'v got to love it.

ge

[Econo Tech]

Can anyone recomend a hotel near station 2 in Boracay? I will be there for 2 days only so looking for convinance more than anything. Pool, close to beach and D Mall.

Not close to beach, not close to the mall.

But, cross the road for the beach (the other side of the road belongs to the hotel) and free shuttle to the Mall, and stay away from the hustle and bustle of the area around D Mall. Look up Boracay Beach Club!

Quite and nice pool and good service. And they package in a in-room massage as well.

[Mc Don]

Can anyone recomend a hotel near station 2 in Boracay? I will be there for 2 days only so looking for convinance more than anything. Pool, close to beach and D Mall.

[WhiteTiger666]

I haven't read much about Legaspi on this forum but reading my Lonely Planet guide it says "Legaspi City is a noisy, convoluted maze of street stalls, market stalls and girlie bars". Is this true, or is it just a case of the reporter jumping to conclusions because they saw a few short skirts? I will be in Legaspi for a night or two, so if you did have any recommendations, I would visit and post a field report.

Anyone have any further details?

Legaspi is a bit boring and not as bad as described in your quote.

There are a few bar / restaurants in Albay at Penaranda Park. Or you can head to Embarcadero at Legaspi Port. There are more bars and restaurants there.

Girlie bars have been mostly banned from the city. For some action you will want to go to Lady Anne. It is located near the north east end of the airport runway. It features some gogo style dancing on a central stage. There are quite a few nice girls you can invite to your table and buy a San Mig. More action can happen on site. Not sure about take out or bar fine. I was there with family members so my options were limited to try out the offerings in more detail.

Whitetiger

[Gangles]

Purchasing property in the Philippines can be more complicated than previously outlined below.

Unlike almost all other countries operating under the Torrens Title system, in the Philippines, there are four legal sources of title to land.

So you, or your wife / gf etc may hold a legal title, but if some senator likes the look of your place, he can have a legal title to the same property raised in his / her name.

He then claims the property and argues the case in court. You will never win this argument.

In a test project in Quezon City a few years ago, a shop owner was found who was paying rent to three owners, all of whom claimed to have the legitimate title.

G

[HealthClubber]

Flash floods in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. I visited a gf once lived in a shanty town in CDO, next to the mouth of the river. All of them were at best a foot higher than the river level. Sheet, sucks to be them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-16229394

So is anyone getting pleas online for personal disaster relief? I figger, unless you're in that Sprint commercial, and are logging onto the Internet via your iPhone while you float out at sea, you're doing pretty good.

I'll be over there in a couple of weeks and toss 'them my 6" life-line

You're not very nice are you Jambo. Some would say a see*nt.

[Lister Dave]

Hi all,

Reading on here that things are a bit thin on the ground in Coron, but I'm planning on giving it a shot anyway. Does anyone have any accommodation recommendations. Would hate to find some talent then have problems getting them back into my room!

As a thanks, here are some pics from my last AC trip.

[JPF]

I haven't seen anything in this forum on Bohol (except a vague report that there are bars there) so this might be a first. I went to Solid Gold, which is a KTV in downtown Tagbilaran City (ask a trike driver to take you). The following info is all from my bar fine, so take it with the grain of sand that it is from a single source. The authorities will not allow dancing so this is a "real" KTV (with karaoke) and my girl did sing two songs (5p each). There was not even a stage, she sang from her seat. She said that there was a private room but no sex was allowed in it. A single lady drink was about 160p (and they did have doubles).

She told me that there were 3 other bars in town but they were all smaller, having 4-5 women each. Sold Gold has about a dozen women although I only saw around 6 the short time I was there. I would say all the women were 4-6's. The bar fine was 1700p for ST; LT is 2000p. No extra to the girl is required but mine did ask for cab fare. Service was rushed but adequate.

[Stroker Ace88]

Excellent advice, thanks for that. I was thinking about the corporate route already. Thanks for the suggestion.

No, not good advice IMO.

From what I understand GG, there are 3 main options: First, put yourself at the mercy of a Philippine partner (GF, Buddy, Bank Manager, Lawyer, etc) and pray you don't get screwed. MANY DO! Second, arrange a very long term lease, eg. 99years. Third, invest in your own Philippine corporation and have the corporation retain the ownership. Maybe other members will suggest other possibilities. However, the main sticking point remains the Rule of Law in PI. Really, it doesn't exist. Remember that the whole point of maintaining the fuedal system is to benefit the aristocracy and their vassals and screw the rest. When they screwed a major German firm over the Manila Airport fiasco, to the serious detriment of investments from the entire Western World, the message was clear. You are always at the whim of forces that you can't control.

Option 1, finding a suitable partner in the Philippines in which to put land-property ownership.

I would only undergo option one if the foreigner was married to a filipina and the marriage is based on long-term love not on convenience. Forget the GF, buddy, business partner, bank manager or lawyer route as relationships in the Philippines that often seem rock solid have a way of going bad once money is involved.

Dangle a property worth several million pesos (or more) infront of a local and tell them you will draw up a non-legally binding contract and oh by the way I will just use your name on the title deed and see how long things stay solid. Just long enough for you to build a very nice house or business only to find out the person who legally owns the land-property because his name is on the title deed Has decided you no longer matter. Then has the PNP and court system remove you from said property and warns you if you return prison awaits. Ya, real good option.

Option 2, making a lease agreement with the land-property owner.

While this can be a viable option for land-property use, and some have been successful at doing this, they are the exception to the rule and many many foreigners have learned the hard way this option is not a good one.

First you have to understand that whoever claims to be the rightful owner of the land may in fact not be the real owner even if that person is paying the land taxes on the property. Record keeping in the Philippines dealing with land ownership and title deeds is a mess and often discovering who exactly owns the property is almost impossible in some situations.

That being said, the lease agreement can succeed in some instances. The lease can be up to 25 years (never 99 years) , extendable for another 25 years if BOTH PARTIES ARE AGREEABLE. In order for the lease to be binding on third parties (Heirs, buyers, etc) the lease must be annotated on the title at registrar of deeds. The lease can be drawn up in any manner agreeable to both parties. It can be made transferable, assignable, subleasable, etc, as long as it is done properly, and annotated on the title at the registrar of deeds.

The problems often occur if the person you make the lease agreement with is NOT the sole owner or sole heir to the property. Making a lease agreement with only one heir means the other siblings and-or family members can make a claim on the property at any time and that means the original lease agreement is NUL and VOID. If the owner of the property suddenly dies that means the lease agreement is in theory broken and you could find yourself on the wrong side of the gate with all your things looking in.

The law implemented in 1974 by then President Marcos is PD 471 and still applies today for issues dealing with foreigners leasing land-property.

Pitfalls are many dealing with lease agreements and using a good lawyer is paramount to success but nothing is 100 percent.

Option 3, invest in your own Philippine corporation and have the corp retain the ownership.

Again, see option one for advice on this subject. I would only undergo this option if you have met and married a filipina for love and have a long-term commitment with her. Although creating a corp to hold land-property ownership means the filipina in theory automatically has to possess 60% of said shares in the corporation. A foreigner creating a corporation must show the division of ownership in the corporation when registering the corporation. A Filipino (a) must hold atleast a 60% ownership role in the corporation for the corp to get official status. That takes you back to square one, and option one.

In the Philippines it is illegal to create a shell corporation for the purpose of land-property ownership and you open yourself up to forfeiture of the land-property if ever there is a dispute about ownership, bringing you back to option one.

If you open a legitimate business that creates 50 local jobs and you invest minimum 200k USD or if creating "advanced technologies" (IE call center jobs) the minimum investment drops to 100k USD, you get some increased foreigner ownership rights dealing with land-property. There are some additional restrictions to outright foreigner ownership that requires legal advice.

The foreign investment act of the Philippines RA 7042 and amended by act 8179 in 1996 deals with this topic.

[Gaijin Gigolo]

From what I understand GG, there are 3 main options: First, put yourself at the mercy of a Philippine partner (GF, Buddy, Bank Manager, Lawyer, etc) and pray you don't get screwed. MANY DO! Second, arrange a very long term lease, eg. 99years. Third, invest in your own Philippine corporation and have the corporation retain the ownership. Maybe other members will suggest other possibilities. However, the main sticking point remains the Rule of Law in PI. Really, it doesn't exist. Remember that the whole point of maintaining the fuedal system is to benefit the aristocracy and their vassals and screw the rest. When they screwed a major German firm over the Manila Airport fiasco, to the serious detriment of investments from the entire Western World, the message was clear. You are always at the whim of forces that you can't control.

Excellent advice, thanks for that. I was thinking about the corporate route already. Thanks for the suggestion.

[World Guy Sh]

Definitely / somewhat correct.

I just came back from drinking in Sabang. I didn't barfine as I planned.

I was going to bafine this girl at Venus (I barfined her 2 days ago). I got to that street at 7 PM. But I decided to have a drink at some other bar to see how the quality was. I had a beer and went to Venus at 7:20.

I saw about 5 Koreans take out about 10 girls (the cute ones of course). My girl was already barfined. Oh well; you snooze, you lose. I don't hate them for that. I just have to be smarter next time. The girlie bars open at 7 PM; I just have to get there at 6:59 PM.

Alternatively just get her number and shoot her a few texts before work and in the first hour she starts. Confirm a time you will drop by. She'll (usually) wait, especially if she liked you in any way.

Sad to see an increase in BF. 2000 was a good deal (1k to the bar. 1k to the girl).3, 000, well it ain't bad I guess but still a sharp old hike.

Koreans do appear to be taking over. Pity as they are doing to their rep what the Brits did to theirs in Ibizia / Majorca etc in the 80's and 90's. Still, the upside is they are home by 8pm even if perhaps some of the nicer girls are gone.

And someone asked why the girls prefer Koreas:I was told because of the 3 threes: the pay 3k, have 3 inches and last 3 mins. Compared to me the ugly white guy it is pretty appealing!

WGS