General Topics

That's a great idea Bob. Which ones would you remove from the sticky list?

Good idea   
And real estate buying and renting.

pnwcyclist wrote:

That's a great idea Bob. Which ones would you remove from the sticky list?

I would leave it up to the moderators to decide which are the  irrelevant to the Philippine forum, maybe they were relevant when placed on the list a long ago, but now have lost their relevancy. Or add new ones to the sticky list.

I would add safety.

Bob's TOPIC comments makes sense to me. Baguio JImmy

Great suggestion guys...but that alone would make this forum a little too boaring (just facts, figs & again omo)....I would also like to see/read some of the  passionate topics/replies fm some of the various members with different perspectives/life experiences & that alone may help someone.

Coach 53-Perhaps another topic is PROS and CONS of buying real-estate in the Philippines. Actually I dont know why a foreigner would want to buy real estate here when you can NOT own it. You pay the bucks, buy a nice beautiful home  for your Philippina and have several kids and then your wife passes away and that beautiful home goes to her family. The foreigner gets ZIP! I love the Philippino people but foreigners must be aware of deception in this country. The following is not my unwarranted comments but perception and experience living in  this culture 9 years. I will preface this by saying that $$$$$ is the Philippinos god. My personal experience: I lived with a Pinay 2012-2015 and we broke up. Her family ABANDONED her because they were no longer getting financial support from me. I thought Philippines was all about FAMILY but it sure doesnt appear that way to me. Example #2 My Canadian friend bought a house with his Pinay gf and after a year of living together she decided she wanted out. Of course she had to sign in order for him to buy the house. When Steve tried to sell it she wanted more than what he was willing to give her. Long story short she got 75,000 usd and he got 50,000 usd for a house "HE" bought. Besides having a teaching degree in Elementary Educ and Special Educ from the USA I also have a degree in Business and owned a business in America short term.Too much competition and my partners wife was a paralegal and she got involved and that destroyed my partner and my relationship/friendship. I bailed! Some foreigners come here to Phil thinking they can buy a business and they will make it big time.WRONG! I have an American friend I met in Korea 15 years ago as we were English co-teachers and he bought a gas station and a massage parlor in Philippines. HMMMMM Not a good move.Massage parlor definitely not a good investment at 5-6 usd a massage coast to the customer and some massage therapists may get 3 massages a day (10 hrs) if they are lucky and they will make 30%  for each massage they give. The more therapists that work there the less money they will make.Back to buying a house. Do you really want to spend a LOT of money to have a home built on someone elses land(That you will never own) You will just own the home you bought or built there and then have to pay rent or lease to the Philippino owner? Does this make any sense to anyone?We go into these relationships with a woman from another culture thinking everything will be peachy but doesnt always happen that way. Last example: My American friend here had a Pinay wife and she took him to America and divorced him there and she got 1/3 of his 3 pensions. Then he remarried another Pinay here in Baguio.I havent seen him for years. Maybe he lost on that marriage also.I hope not. Foreigners please beware. MONEY is KING/god here and this is what most(many) Philippinos care about. Good luck to all. God bless America and also the people of the Philippines-my new home(I choose to live here because I cant afford to live in the USA or most other countries)Baguio Jimmy

Like the recent censured post in question? Like many others? If you want passionate topics/replies buy a book or visit relevant sites to suit your needs.
This site is owned and managed by dedicated people and has rules, set out for all to see, great contributions by most, stacks of boring/informative information for a plethora of readers/contributors. Petition your government to change the rules, drivers licence has rules, you want drive on the road in any country, follow the rules, you want to participate on FB? Follow the rules. I am sure the powers that be are not here for the whims and benefit of the few but making money for their business and little else (no disrespect to the owner/s) and run their business accordingly.

The ten commandments, not that anyone follows that old stuff.

Honestly sometimes.

Cheers, Steve.

capricornrising wrote:

Coach 53-Perhaps another topic is PROS and CONS of buying real-estate in the Philippines. Actually I dont know why a foreigner would want to buy real estate here when you can NOT own it. You pay the bucks, buy a nice beautiful home  for your Philippina and have several kids and then your wife passes away and that beautiful home goes to her family. The foreigner gets ZIP! I love the Philippino people but foreigners must be aware of deception in this country. The following is not my unwarranted comments but perception and experience living in  this culture 9 years. I will preface this by saying that $$$$$ is the Philippinos god. My personal experience: I lived with a Pinay 2012-2015 and we broke up. Her family ABANDONED her because they were no longer getting financial support from me. I thought Philippines was all about FAMILY but it sure doesnt appear that way to me. Example #2 My Canadian friend bought a house with his Pinay gf and after a year of living together she decided she wanted out. Of course she had to sign in order for him to buy the house. When Steve tried to sell it she wanted more than what he was willing to give her. Long story short she got 75,000 usd and he got 50,000 usd for a house "HE" bought. Besides having a teaching degree in Elementary Educ and Special Educ from the USA I also have a degree in Business and owned a business in America short term.Too much competition and my partners wife was a paralegal and she got involved and that destroyed my partner and my relationship/friendship. I bailed! Some foreigners come here to Phil thinking they can buy a business and they will make it big time.WRONG! I have an American friend I met in Korea 15 years ago as we were English co-teachers and he bought a gas station and a massage parlor in Philippines. HMMMMM Not a good move.Massage parlor definitely not a good investment at 5-6 usd a massage coast to the customer and some massage therapists may get 3 massages a day (10 hrs) if they are lucky and they will make 30%  for each massage they give. The more therapists that work there the less money they will make.Back to buying a house. Do you really want to spend a LOT of money to have a home built on someone elses land(That you will never own) You will just own the home you bought or built there and then have to pay rent or lease to the Philippino owner? Does this make any sense to anyone?We go into these relationships with a woman from another culture thinking everything will be peachy but doesnt always happen that way. Last example: My American friend here had a Pinay wife and she took him to America and divorced him there and she got 1/3 of his 3 pensions. Then he remarried another Pinay here in Baguio.I havent seen him for years. Maybe he lost on that marriage also.I hope not. Foreigners please beware. MONEY is KING/god here and this is what most(many) Philippinos care about. Good luck to all. God bless America and also the people of the Philippines-my new home(I choose to live here because I cant afford to live in the USA or most other countries)Baguio Jimmy

There flows the passionate honest informative reply that I was just talking about earlier...
...only sad part is "any" country that has no mandatory minimum wage/living wage/exploitation of foreign cheap labour...money always has a tendency to become godly.(maybe to different degrees...again Omo)

capricornrising wrote:

Coach 53-Perhaps another topic is PROS and CONS of buying real-estate in the Philippines. Actually I dont know why a foreigner would want to buy real estate here when you can NOT own it. You pay the bucks, buy a nice beautiful home  for your Philippina and have several kids and then your wife passes away and that beautiful home goes to her family. The foreigner gets ZIP! I love the Philippino people but foreigners must be aware of deception in this country. The following is not my unwarranted comments but perception and experience living in  this culture 9 years. I will preface this by saying that $$$$$ is the Philippinos god. My personal experience: I lived with a Pinay 2012-2015 and we broke up. Her family ABANDONED her because they were no longer getting financial support from me. I thought Philippines was all about FAMILY but it sure doesnt appear that way to me. Example #2 My Canadian friend bought a house with his Pinay gf and after a year of living together she decided she wanted out. Of course she had to sign in order for him to buy the house. When Steve tried to sell it she wanted more than what he was willing to give her. Long story short she got 75,000 usd and he got 50,000 usd for a house "HE" bought. Besides having a teaching degree in Elementary Educ and Special Educ from the USA I also have a degree in Business and owned a business in America short term.Too much competition and my partners wife was a paralegal and she got involved and that destroyed my partner and my relationship/friendship. I bailed! Some foreigners come here to Phil thinking they can buy a business and they will make it big time.WRONG! I have an American friend I met in Korea 15 years ago as we were English co-teachers and he bought a gas station and a massage parlor in Philippines. HMMMMM Not a good move.Massage parlor definitely not a good investment at 5-6 usd a massage coast to the customer and some massage therapists may get 3 massages a day (10 hrs) if they are lucky and they will make 30%  for each massage they give. The more therapists that work there the less money they will make.Back to buying a house. Do you really want to spend a LOT of money to have a home built on someone elses land(That you will never own) You will just own the home you bought or built there and then have to pay rent or lease to the Philippino owner? Does this make any sense to anyone?We go into these relationships with a woman from another culture thinking everything will be peachy but doesnt always happen that way. Last example: My American friend here had a Pinay wife and she took him to America and divorced him there and she got 1/3 of his 3 pensions. Then he remarried another Pinay here in Baguio.I havent seen him for years. Maybe he lost on that marriage also.I hope not. Foreigners please beware. MONEY is KING/god here and this is what most(many) Philippinos care about. Good luck to all. God bless America and also the people of the Philippines-my new home(I choose to live here because I cant afford to live in the USA or most other countries)Baguio Jimmy

OMO Jimmy but this is for another/ A new post and I'm sure many will appreciate your views and can debate. I certainly will.

Cheers, Steve.

capricornrising wrote:

Example #2 My Canadian friend bought a house with his Pinay gf and after a year of living together she decided she wanted out. Of course she had to sign in order for him to buy the house. When Steve tried to sell it she wanted more than what he was willing to give her. Long story short she got 75,000 usd and he got 50,000 usd for a house "HE" bought.

My story quite the opposite, I met and married my Philippine wife in the states in 2007. She already owned a house free & clear in Pasig City..

Now for the rest of the story. While living in the states we had it completely torn down and rebuilt. We had her family move to an apartment during construction. Her brother oversaw the construction and was on site everyday. We built two floors. Before moving to PH we added the third floor, or apartment. When I say "WE" both of us worked and there was NO MY MONEY, YOUR MONEY involved. The money we both earned and my SS went into a joint account.

We had several good reasons for the reconstruction, the main reason it was part of a much larger family home (her parents), her siblings own parts of the much bigger original house. They sold their parts. All of a sudden we had no front door, her childrens new front door was a window, the house had termites and the plumbing was shot.

Moral of the story, marry someone who already owns a house.

"Sad part of any country" reply is right on. I blame the Gov for the reasons of this unwarranted poverty. Same reason the south American countries want to migrate to America because of their mismanaged  government officials many who are corrupt just like Gov officials in America and we know who they are. Government officials MUST be diligently screened before putting them in charge of the people in any country. Many of these countries have an abundance of wealth like Venezuela but those at the top are corrupt. N Korea has an abundance of wealth in their soil and the country could surpass Singapore in wealth but another dictator leader makes the N Korean people pay the price of poverty so that he can be rich and powerful. Its a sad world and will only get worse if the people of these countries dont take a stand(There is STRENGTH in numbers) and stop this useless destructive behavior by the so called "leaders". Just my 2 cents worth! Baguio Jimmy

capricornrising wrote:

I blame the Gov for the reasons of this unwarranted poverty.

Baguio Jimmy

If you put the Government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand.     * Milton Friedman

No more  Sahara a natural wonder  and I am convinced that the dark side of the Gov in any country is controlled by the god of this world aka Satin.

capricornrising wrote:

Coach 53-Perhaps another topic is PROS and CONS of buying real-estate in the Philippines.

I thought that to be included in the Real estate subject.

capricornrising wrote:

Actually I dont know why a foreigner would want to buy real estate here when you can NOT own it.

Actualy that's a very common WRONG belief   
Foreiggners CAN own 40 % of a company which own real estate  (if fullfiling some demands. A main is the company need to have NEED of land for the BUSINESS. NOT enough to be just to rent to the foreigner.

Plus I thought including CONDOS in this subject.
(I'm not intereted in such myself but I suppouse many others are   

I think better to own 40 % than as many do pay whole and own nothing 

Can kind of "own" through marriage too, 50% but the wife is the handler.  BUT if put foreigner's name at the document too,  then BOTH have to sign to sell.   This have saved a friend of mine from his scamer wife selling and take all the money.

I recomend  to RENT
But I "have to" buy     because there are almost no houses I want located where I want to live far from neighbours, and the few  I have seen cost to much - except a bigg house, which was built just beside a big pigery   

capricornrising wrote:

You pay the bucks, buy a nice beautiful home  for your Philippina and have several kids and then your wife passes away and that beautiful home goes to her family. The foreigner gets ZIP!

That's WRONG.  If married the foreigner inherit WHOLE if no kids, and if kids then the foreigner inherit over half anyway.   But the foreigner can't STAY as owner, but get some time to solve sell it.

capricornrising wrote:

! I love the Philippino people but foreigners must be aware of deception in this country.

Yes. Even lawyers paid by the FOREIGNER , fool the foreigner - or screw up by being incompetense.

capricornrising wrote:

Some foreigners come here to Phil thinking they can buy a business and they will make it big time.WRONG! I have an American friend I met in Korea 15 years ago as we were English co-teachers and he bought a gas station and a massage parlor in Philippines. HMMMMM Not a good move.Massage parlor definitely not a good investment at 5-6 usd a massage coast to the customer and some massage therapists may get 3 massages a day (10 hrs) if they are lucky and they will make 30%  for each massage they give. The more therapists that work there the less money they will make

Well. Yes very hard. Some have earned good though e g one at aa big pigery, and one manuactorer of thins made of wood..
Although NOT odd many fail by many believe they can be successful bar owners by only being bar CUSTOMERS before       and no business exterience...

It's recomended to have working experience from the chosen business AND bussiness experience or at least business mind.
But if have business and leader skill AND find employees/business partner with the missing experience and knowledge in the business type in question, then there is chance to get good result.

And normaly NOT involve the Filipino family if it's normal.  Many OFWs financing have been lost by incompetent/lazy/scammer relatives. 

DON'T have a shop close to relatives because it's common they expect to not need to pay!!!

capricornrising wrote:

Do you really want to spend a LOT of money to have a home built on someone elses land(That you will never own) You will just own the home you bought or built there and then have to pay rent or lease to the Philippino owner? Does this make any sense to anyone?We go into these relationships with a woman from another culture thinking everything will be peachy but doesnt always happen that way.

I agree. Although better than put all in girlfriend's name      as many do!!!

C'mon guys, is it so hard to stay on the topic? 

Just post a new thread if you want to write a book about something other than the thread topic. And by the way we have all heard the "woe is me/someone got screwed" stories. They are nothing new and those coming here looking for information probably get tired of wading through all of it.

And as a reminder, the moderators can remove OFF-TOPIC posts.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

When checking into the Forum in the heading there are eight general topics, indicated with a thumb tack. A lot of the subjects have sparse activity for a lack of interest.

May I suggest they delete some of them and replace them with more informational topics that often members, new members or future new seek answers or advise.

(1) Immigration
(2) Banking
(3) Visa's
(4) Marriage
(5) Business

So much viable information is repeated over and over in archives that is simply lost because of the sheer size of the archive.

Hello Enzyte Bob,

Thank you for your suggestions.
They have been well noted and we shall discuss them with the team.

----
@ All : I agree with Pnwcyclist, please avoid going off topic. 

Thank you,

Priscilla
Expat.com Team

Enzyte Bob wrote:

When checking into the Forum in the heading there are eight general topics, indicated with a thumb tack. A lot of the subjects have sparse activity for a lack of interest.

May I suggest they delete some of them and replace them with more informational topics that often members, new members or future new seek answers or advise.

(1) Immigration
(2) Banking
(3) Visa's
(4) Marriage
(5) Business

So much viable information is repeated over and over in archives that is simply lost because of the sheer size of the archive.

I would like to add another

(6) Rants & Raves. . . .Not an original idea but instead of moderators removing threads or placing them under review, move them to Rants & Raves.

This includes: Off Topic, Political Fake News, Conspiracy Theories, Propaganda, Tin Foil Rubbish and Pointless Arguments.

This will allow freedom of expression and views that differ from TOS (Terms of Service).

Agree Bob and an idea that at times works on other sites "but" most times turns into grief.
I am sure the owners/moderators are well aware of your proposal. Not rants and or raves but a closed section that most cannot access unless 50/100/500 credible posts and invited by the powers that be upon request. Seen it all before and even in that environment have personally been booted off 2 sites, in my opinion simply because I had 500 posts and the person I disagreed with had 2,000, my opinions were irrelevant.
Boys club rings a bell. You want to go there?
Only My personal opinion but I believe this site is where it is simply because it frowns down upon certain connotations and bias rhetoric and while suggestions submitted to upstairs from members will be acknowledged doubt very much they will go anywhere.

I doubt this site is the place for a dedicated fight tent, there is enough retaliation here already and yes guilty also.

Perhaps a new site? Business opportunity to cater to zealots, conspiracy theorists, or a simple fight/b#tch? Invite me for the ride. BTW the pointless arguments will follow. Nothing will be learnt.

Cheers, Steve.

Slap me down, after all these years I actually scrolled to the bottom of the opening page and there are 19 categories listed,,,,, here's me doing searches from time to time and it's all there.
General topics, Major disasters, private calamities and Master Bates are probably not necessary ? The guide lines seem clear to me and there for a reason.

Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl wrote:

Slap me down, after all these years I actually scrolled to the bottom of the opening page and there are 19 categories listed,,,,, here's me doing searches from time to time and it's all there.
General topics, Major disasters, private calamities and Master Bates are probably not necessary ? The guide lines seem clear to me and there for a reason.

Cheers, Steve.

I was referring to sticky notes that appear on top of the Philippines Expat  main page. If it was so easy for experienced or newbies to navigate your suggestion, why do the same questions get repeated all the time?

bigpearl wrote:

Slap me down, after all these years I actually scrolled to the bottom of the opening page and there are 19 categories listed,,,,, here's me doing searches from time to time and it's all there.
General topics, Major disasters, private calamities and Master Bates are probably not necessary ? The guide lines seem clear to me and there for a reason.

Cheers, Steve.

Hi Steve, all the various categories are also available through the pull-down at the top of the home page but I do not think most are aware of it, as it kind of disappears into the background. The filtering is pretty good as to which posts are in each section, but there are a few that are mis-categorized, or the thread did not get a tag so the process needs some tweaking.

I think if we added a section on Real Estate, it would just about cover all the bases, and might be better than adding more sticky posts at the top of the home page, which take up valuable space and require us to scroll down to get to the new posts. Already there is quite a bit of dead space because of that. The other problem with having just a few sticky posts is the threads get really long to wade through. Since there is already a mechanism in place to filter posts, and it has pretty good granularity, I see no reason not to just try to make it more workable.

I have reached out to Priscilla with a couple questions about the tagging and perhaps making that pull down more prominent as a place to start when looking for information. As Bob mentions in his inititial post, the same questions come up over and over again. We need to find a better way to refer newcomers over there. Thanks Bob, for the suggestion.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

bigpearl wrote:

Slap me down, after all these years I actually scrolled to the bottom of the opening page and there are 19 categories listed,,,,, here's me doing searches from time to time and it's all there.
General topics, Major disasters, private calamities and Master Bates are probably not necessary ? The guide lines seem clear to me and there for a reason.

Cheers, Steve.

I was referring to sticky notes that appear on top of the Philippines Expat  main page. If it was so easy for experienced or newbies to navigate your suggestion, why do the same questions get repeated all the time?

Bob, probably because most of us are lazy. In reality most answers are within the archives.

Cheers, Steve.

Is safety one of the topics? I've been surrounded by heavily armed militants and corrupt extorting cops here.

We could probably get them to add it - good suggestion. That one should apply to all countries.. (I believe the categories are standardized).