My Move to the Philippines

As you can see from this and the other pictures in the album our house construction in the Philippines is in the latter stages. It’s a good thing because in our phone conversation with family it was raining so hard in Laguna that we could hear it through the headphones. I’ve posted one of the pics from the album at the beginning of this post and the rest can be found in our Moving to Philippines photo album. Click on the link to see them.

In other news, I have been contacted from a tourism student at a University in Manila to be interviewed for her thesis entitled “The Philippines as a retirement destination for foreign tourists” If our schedules match up I may accept her offer and get together with her and her group for a sit down. I’ll post more on this later.

Well thats all I have right other than to say I’m counting the days until my return back to the Philippines. As soon as the college football season is over I will be on my way. See you all soon!

This August 23rd was a little eventful for Filipinos and the Philippines in general. One of the events was on the good side and ended less than good and the second event was bad all the way around.

The first event I’m referring to was the Miss Universe pageant where Venus Raj, the Miss Philippines, had a misstep in answering the question at the end. IMHO she could have answered much better, but I still think she wouldn’t have beat out the winner, Miss Mexico, anyway and probably would have made first runner up. The good part of the night was that Miss Philippines reached the final five runner ups and that the Filipinos in attendance were definitely the loudest cheering section which shows how Filipinos will rally behind each other and show their pride.

Also on August 23rd there was a tragic event where hostages were taken and a few were either killed or injured. This event may have hurt the tourist industry slightly but you can only look at London and New York to see how they have recovered after even larger terrorist events happened in their cities. Look, it could happen anywhere, and it does quite often. If people are afraid to visit places and see the world because of  isolated incidents such as this they will be living in a bubble and will never experience what this world has to offer. As for me it doesn’t change a thing about how safe I feel in moving to the Philippines.

Having been in the U.S. for the last Presidential election and then the Philippines for the recent Presidential election I would like to offer a couple of observations about the differences I saw. Now I must warn you that I watched news programs during both elections but my English is better than my Tagalog so in the latter case I might have missed a little bit in translation, bear with me. Also, I’m only making observations of what I saw and not choosing one country over another or one candidate over another, just my opinion.

The main difference I noticed was the television coverage of the two different countries. In the U.S. I witnessed many ads that were not much more than smear campaigns not focusing on what a candidate would do if elected but what his opponent had done or would do wrong. In the Philippines of course there was a little bit of that but on a less personal case. The Philippine candidates promised to rid the country of corruption and help the needy while the U.S. candidates focused on what would happen if the opponent got elected.

Secondly, since I am a history buff and enjoy the little sayings that go along with a campaign I was disappointed not to see any in the last campaign or the ones in recent history. I’ve read about “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too” the 1840 U.S. presidential slogan of William Henry Harrison and his Vice President, John Tyler and “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!”1948 U.S. presidential campaign slogan of Harry Truman, among others. These just aren’t present in American politics anymore.

In the Philippines there were political slogans along with catchy nicknames there was “Noynoy” “Gibo” and “Erap” along with Aquino’s catchy politcal slogan “If there were no corrupt, there would be no poor.” among others. And everywhere you went it was a festive mood with shouts from the children of Noynoy! Nonynoy! completely different from what I experienced in the 2008 U.S. election.

Now a catchy slogan or phrase or shouting a nickname may not make a difference in election results but I wonder how many people went to the polls undecided and all they have heard in their heads were little kids yelling Noynoy or Gibo. It makes you wonder!

Now that we’ve got the political commentary out of the way I’m going to post that latest two pics I have of our home construction so those following along can see how it is going. You can see all of those pics by visiting my Facebook album just click here

Well the worst part for doing outdoor house construction in the Philippines is beginning so I think by now most of the outside work is done and we can work on getting the inside complete. I’ve added some more pics to the album and one of my favorite pictures is the planter and calamansi tree that my wife made sure everyone knows is staying. If you are interested in the progress check out the latest at Our Home Construction in the Philippines

Having much experience flying on international flights, especially from the United States to the Philippines, I can tell you there are not many airlines better than Philippine Airlines (PAL). So it was sad to see that many of their pilots are leaving for jobs with other airlines.

When I fly I don’t have much interaction with the pilots on these flights but I do talk to and observe other members of the crew and I can tell you that PAL people are there to assist you in any way they can. All of the attendants are neat and friendly and smile all the time even on the long 15-20 hour flights. Try taking one of these long flights with a U.S. airline and you can tell the difference.

With the U.S. crews it is not unusual for an attendant to be rude and ignore passengers when they need something. One thing I think contributes to that is the U.S. airlines people look tired like they are overworked which could be the case. Maybe someone thinking of leaving for greener pastures should consider that. Secondly, the PAL and other foreign airlines employees seem younger and fresher, not burnt out. Maybe airline jobs are more coveted in these countries with a fresh batch of young people ready to work, I’m not sure.

The last difference I have observed between the airlines is the ability to keep on schedule. My last two flights from the U.S. were delayed significantly on the legs that involved U.S. airlines while the foreign flights were perfectly on schedule. Not sure why it was this way, but it has shaped my view of how I want to fly possibly taking the foreign airlines all the way.

There are other differences that I won’t go into here including food and comfort items but it is true that Philippine Airlines and other foreign airlines have beaten out the U.S. guys.

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Sticking with the same theme of our moving to Philippines blog I have updated my album of pictures of our house construction in the Philippines. We are still working hard on the interior and these pictures are showing some of the additions with paint. Included in the latest pics are the downstairs bathroom which is the room that is now painted checker board style and also the kitchen sink and part of the work is done on the counter. I think it looks pretty good and will continue to post updated pictures. To link to the total photo album click on the following link: Pictures of Our House Construction in the Philippines.

In other news there is a video out making the YouTube rounds of our favorite singer from the Philippines, Charice. It seems she is getting ready for an appearance on the show Glee and she is getting Botox treatments. In my opinion Charice you are beautiful as you are but it’s your body do what feels comfortable. Until next time Salamat Po!

For any of the interested readers of my blog on my Move to the Philippines I am including a link to some of the interior pictures of our house construction in the Philippines. This project is coming along very well and we are pushing it as quick as possible due to rainy season but since it is a very big project we are also watching the quality of work. Thanks to all of our neighbors and relatives in Binan Laguna for what you are doing in our absence, that is what I like most about the Philippines.

Here is a link to the Facebook album of the remaining pictures Our House Construction in the Philippines

Terrace Under Construction

Just received some updated pictures of work done on our house construction in the Philippines one of which is at the beginning of this post. Suddenly it’s shaping up to looking like we want it even though there is still a ways to go. I promised I would keep updating as it progressed not to show off but to let people see what goes on with house construction in the the Philippines. I will entertain any comments or questions concerning what we are going through. If you’d like to see the all the pictures just click on my Facebook button to the right.

I recently received a comment on the post I wrote awhile back about my wife becoming a U.S./Philippine Dual Citizen and I want to clear up any misconceptions others may have gotten. I’ll just post the the comment and my reply in this post with an important link for you all to read. Here is the comment string:

Comment: i know this article has been a few years already…but im confused. i was looking into getting the dual citizenship but when i took my oath for my US citizenship…i know i read somewhere, that although the US allows dual citizenship, an individual can be stripped of their US citizenship after naturalizing. and one of those ways was if the individual swore an oath to another country. from what i’ve read on the requirements for the DC, a naturalized US citizen is in danger of getting their citizenship revoked because of having to take another oath to the Philippines. im just wondering why it’s not like other countries that even though you get your US citizenship, you automatically retain your citizenship from where you were born. no submitting forms or re-taking an oath of allegiance.

also…as far as i know, as long as you were born in the Philippines, even if you naturalized as a US citizen, you will be able to buy as much land as you can. i know so because my mom was a naturalized citizen born in the Philippines. but throughout all these years, she’s bought numerous parcels of land without any problems.

My reply: “If you do a little Googling you will see that there are court cases and legal summations on this subject. The rulings have always determined that for anyone to lose their U.S. citizenship they must appear before an official and VOLUNTARILY give it up. Here’s more info: Advice about Possible Loss of US Citizenship and Dual Nationality”

The way I look at it is if someone becomes a dual citizen the worst case scenario is they get a call from an Embassy official asking if they took the oath of another country WITH THE INTENT of giving up U.S. citizenship. If the dual citizen says no, then no problem.

As far as I know this has never happened and if it has please someone let me know the details. Again if you are considering dual citizenship and feel uncomfortable with it you make the decision that makes you feel comfortable.

Disclaimer: I am not a legal professional and only provide this as general information. Please consult a legal expert for a professional opinion.

July 2010

If you’ve been following the story on our moving to the Philippines you know that we are still working on our house construction in the Philippines. We fully lived in it the last time we were there and decided to start another phase which is making a bigger kitchen and adding a terrace and expanding my office. The picture at the beginning of the post is from about two weeks ago. As you can see, many times Philippine houses are built by manual labor with very little automation at all. It’s been really interesting watching our Philippine house and seeing the unique ways the the Filipino workmen use common items as tools and construction material. Keep checking back to see when we get the completion pictures.

On another note I would like to thank the loyal readers who have been following my blog. I never intended this to be a profit making site but did add some advertisements to pay for hosting and such. I am surprised to see that although I don’t spend nearly as much time as I do on my other projects this blog is picking up much more traffic than I ever expected. If there are any questions on my experience as an American moving to the Philippines please leave me a comment.