My Move to the Philippines

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.

An internet friend Louden recently wrote on his blog Life in the Philippines about a trip to the dentist where he lives in the Philippines. He covered the visit very well and covered the major advantages and disadvantages of getting his work done there. This got me thinking about medical tourism in the Philippines and getting healthcare in the Philippines.

Medical tourism can be defined as when a person travels from their home country to another country for the specific reason of getting medical, dental, and surgical care. More often than not, the medical tourist travels from a more developed country to a lesser developed country due to currency exchange rates. Economic conditions such as a recession also factor into the rate of medical tourism. When an economy is suffering, as the U.S. is experiencing right now, you will see more examples of medical tourism.

Most of the procedures that are performed are done with the latest technology in hospitals and clinics that rival the ones in their own countries. Some of the most common procedures are cosmetic surgery, dermatology, weight loss, and dentistry. One example I’ve read about is knee replacement surgery, which could cost you up to $50,000 in the United States. The price is around $5,000 in the Philippines and this surgery is done by surgeons usually trained at the same place as the U.S. doctors.

My wife and I have not needed any major surgery lately but since we spend time between the U.S. and Philippines we try to schedule our dental and optometry visits when we are in the Philippines. Not only are the check- ups much cheaper but our eyeglasses are half the price that we can get them for, even at the discount eyecarewebsites.

Medical tourism in Asia is on the rise with countries such as Thailand and Singapore trying to lure the medical tourists to their own countries but the Philippines is still considered the best due to their facilities. Check out the various websites that are specifically targeted towards medical tourism for more information.

With the state of the United States economy and the growing dissatifaction of the job our Government officials are doing more Americans are choosing to retire overseas. I come across a great article in the New York Times newspaper giving some tips on how to retire overseas and what to look for. I believe some of these helpful hints and tips can assist an American moving to the Philippines. Such tips as maintaining a bank account in your homeland to facilitate transfer of money or making sure the health care system is adequate to help you in old age. I’ve already considered and made plans for these as well as other concerns but if someone were considering doing as I am this would be a very good article to start out with.

If you’d like to read more on this subject and maybe get a few tips the entire article can be read at the following link: Americans Who Seek Out Retirement Homes Overseas

A question for my friends who were born in the Philippines but have migrated to the United States later in life. What do you call yourselves? I have some friends who refer to themselves as Fil-Am (Filipino American) and some just refer to themselves as Filipinos and others refer to themselves as Americans. One of the greatest things about being a U.S. citizen is that you have the right to label yourselves as such. I’ve seen many people from other countries that take on the label American but obviously they were not born here. But they have become U.S. citizens and now they ARE Americans and proud of it.

Not many other countries allow people to come in and become a citizen of their countries so it would be rare for someone born in the U.S. to refer to themselves as anything other than Americans. The same goes with my friends from the UK, Germany or any other countries. It may happen but in my travels around the world I have never experienced it.

What I’ve been leading up to in the previous paragraphs is there is a controversy going on in certain parts of the U.S. about dual citizens from the Philippines and why they have did it. Some Filipinos believe that it is for the benefits of unlimited purchase of real estate or being allowed to own businesses in the Philippines while enjoying the benefits of living in the U.S. These people who are against Filipinos obtaining dual citizenship for the previous reasons argue that many people who obtain dual citizenship don’t even teach their children how to speak Tagalog and refer to themselves only as Americans, leaving their Filipino heritage behind. Still others obtain a dual citizenship and refer to themselves as Filipinos confusing some who want to know where their allegiance really lies.

My wife is in the group of people who while obtaining dual citizenship has embraced both countries. She and I plan on moving to the Philippines to live out our later years only returning to the U.S. to visit with family sometimes. We have made our children (and grandchild) aware and proud of their Filipino heritage. We also have encouraged them to visit the Philippines as often as possible. My wife votes in Philippine elections and pays her taxes just as she does in the United States so I would hope that many Filipinos would respect her as she chooses the label of Fil-Am.

One of the videos concerning this controversy is on YouTube and I am including it at the end of this post Please comment and tell me how you how you refer to yourself and why.

We were very honored to be invited by our niece Zyra to her school’s day of dancing and celebration recently. She attends Colegio San Agustin in Binan Laguna. 

This school is owned and managed by the Augustinian Friars of the Province of Sto Nino de Cebu and located on five hectares in Binan and houses more than 600 students. This is the second time I’ve visited the school and I have been impressed with the staff, students, and parents associated with this fine school. Check out the video I made (excuse the jumpiness and shots of the ground) the day we visited last.

One of my favorite activities is visiting the Malls around Manila and the surrounding areas and I’ll have to admit that my favorite mall is Mall of Asia or MOA as it is sometimes called. The best feature is the ice skating rink where I watch skaters of all ages and skill levels. I made a video recently of the rink and I’d like to share it with you now. Yes that is me speaking in the video. Notice my hillbilly twang?

As many of you know I was born and raised in a place in the U.S. that has the claim of being “Almost Heaven” and that is West Virginia. The nickname I believe comes from the beautiful scenery in the mountains and forests of the state as well as the friendly people.

Growing up in the city in West Virginia I didn’t wake up in the mountains every day where they say you can feel closer to God just by taking in the beautiful picture that is painted with the sunrise and sunset. I only got to experince such things when my family was camping or traveling.

Loyal readers also know that we have two homes in the Philippines one in the city and one in I guess what you could call the equivalent of the mountains and backwoods of West Virginia and that would be in Macaleeng Pangasinan.

What this is all leading up to is a recent video I took of the view from our front yard (beach) in Pangasinan. I can tell you that waking up in the mountains of West Virginia makes you feel closer to God and waking up and experiencing a sunset like the one in the video gives me the same feeling. So I hope you enjoy this short video of a view from our front yard.

As you know from my previous posts that my wife is a dual citizen of the Philippines/US. Recently we received in the mail a ballot for the upcoming Presidential election. My wife was pleased that she could get the chance to vote because she didn’t expect it. I’m not sure if she voted prior to moving to the states but once again she is glad to be included in the voting process.

She pretty much knew who she wanted to vote for because of our recent trip to the Philippines where you couldn’t avoid the billboards, posters, and TV commercials for all the leading candidates. Even the kids got into it by shouting a certain candidate’s name all the time, probably taught to them by their parents.

I think since we finally got our house built over there and have lived in it for a little while she is getting more comfortable with getting involved in Filipino politics and current events. I’m sure since I’m a political junkie and news junkie I have helped her with that.

If you are a dual citizen or filipino citizen living in the states, did you get an absentee ballot in the mail? If not ,maybe you have moved and didn’t inform the Embassy of your current address. You may want to do that so you can get important information and papers such as the ballot.

Was just reading the headline article of Yahoo sports and it was concerning Manny Pacquiao and his run for Congress of the Philippines. The article talks about Pacman’s life before boxing and some of his earlier fights and what he is doing right now which is campaigning in the Philippines. There are some good quotes from him in this article including one where he talks about why he would be qualified for a political office. 

“I could just sit back and relax and not have anything to do with politics. I could just travel around and enjoy my life with my family,” Pacquiao told the crowd in San Miguel, a remote corn-farming village in Sarangani province in the southern Philippines. “But I came from a very poor family, and I cannot turn my back on the poor.”

This article is very well written and has some interesting points such as in the above quote where he says he could just sit back and relax and travel with his family. I might be mistaken but as a world class athlete aren’t you constantly in training so you can’t lose your edge. Does this mean he is retiring? I think Mayweather Jr would like that so he wouldn’t have any competition for the title.

Without revealing too much of what is in the article I want to leave you with a link so you can read the entire story. Just click on the following link: Boxer Pacquiao runs for office in Philippines

Recently while staying at our home in Macaleeng Anda in the province of Pangasinan we were honored to be invited by Governor Espino of Pangasinan  to visit for a day at the Provincial Capital of Lingayen. Lingayen was one of the great historical points during World War II and the birth place of President Fidel V. Ramos. And I learned that Lingayen is also considered as the “most romantic place in the Philippines”.

Our first stop was at the Sison Auditorium which was under construction at that time. The Sison Auditorium formerly known as the “Grand Provincial Auditorium” was built in 1927. It was later renamed in honor of the late Pangasinan Governor Teofilo Sison, the first Pangasinense to become secretary of National Defense. It is very beautiful there and I loved the chandelier that was imported from Italy.

I’ve included a video I took while we were inside below:

Next we visited the capital building. We got to visit many of the offices and meet some of the people working inside. Everyone was so nice and welcomed us and they represented the Philippines and Lingayen very well. I’ve included another short video of our time on the outside of the capital building due to a problem with my video inside. We also had lunch at the Capital Resort Hotel and ate very well while being entertained by our tour guide. She was a very good tour guide as well as singer. Sorry forgot her name but if someone knows her I would like to mention her on this site and in the video.

On the way back home we stopped in Manaoag and visited a beautiful church and did a little shopping. We got some very good deals. We took one more side trip to a resort in Bolinao which I plan on visiting the next time we are in Pangasinan. I’m sure to have more pictures of it to share with you all. In the next couple of days I’ll be setting up a photo sharing album of our day trip to Lingayen and will include the link to it. Until next time Thanks for reading my blog!