Very nice shopping malls in Metro Manila

In Metro Manila, you'll find many fine and large shopping centres. In fact, the 3rd. and 4th. largest shopping mall in the world are located right here in Metro-Manila. The 3rd. largest is in the City of Manila (SM Mall of Asia) and the 4th. largest is located in Quezon City (SM City North EDSA). They are really large. One can ride a small shuttle bus that comes along periodically from one wing to the other wing, so you don't have to walk long ends to your favoured store. There's also a very large mall called, SM Mega Mall, and this mall is located in Mandaluyong City, along EDSA boulevard.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to Makati City, which is a city located in Metro Manila, and which is actually the downtown core where many businesses, five-star hotels and banks alike are located, including most embassies.

That is where you really can see very trendy shopping centres. Many are buildings connected to eachother and have different names. They are Glorietta and Greenbelt. Glorietta has 4 malls and Greenbelt has 5 malls. Greenbelt 5 has just been opened and this is the classiest of them all, with many high-end stores, only for the rich and famous in the Philippines.

Although, you can really see many ordinary people enjoying lunch in the weekend in many expensive restaurants. My wife and I would hesitate going there because of the prices, but it seems that many Filipinos have money to burn to go there.

We really enjoy walking through the malls in downtown and have lunch at our favoured restaurant, The French Baker, where they serve the best Beef Lasagna and Chicken a la King for a mere P150 for the lasagna and P135 for the Chicken a la King. No wonder, we have to fight for a table every time we go there, because, it's always packed with people who know where to go for a cheap and good lunch that is rather classy, too.

You see more and more people going to the malls now as Christmas approaches. The stores usually decorate very early their Christmas decorations, sometimes as early as the beginning of November and you can sometimes hear Christmas carols already that early to attract customers. It's very nice to be in this atmosphere that early.

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Picture 1) Newest addition inside Greenbelt 5

Picture 2) Facing Greenbelt 3

Picture 3) Inside Greenbelt Park facing some of the Makati City skyscrapers

Picture 4) Inside Greenbelt Park

Picture 5) Inside Greenbelt Park

Picture 6) Inside Greenbelt Park

Picture 7) Makati Avenue

Picture 8) Classy stores

Picture 9) Entrance of Greenbelt 5

Nurses, nurses and more nurses.

When you ever come to the Philippines, you will notice that young people take great pride in their education. You will see a great number of private colleges and universities, run by Catholics or private entities basing their education on Christian values.

Since the 1980's, there has been a perception that taking a certain educational course can get you further ahead in life than others, and this namely is so because in the Philippines, wages are very low compared to the wages in western countries, or even in some of the other Asian neighbours of the Philippines.

A field that is particularly very popular these days is Nursing. It's for many students a passport to get a job overseas, especially in the United States of America. Also, in other countries, like Ireland, England or Austrialia.

In a given moment of a year, there are about 100,000 nursing students graduating but only about half pass their final exam. In the 70's, only a handful of nursing students were enrolling nursing courses but since many people like to leave the Philippines, many students now see a light at the end of the tunnel for a better future, so they think, enrolling in nursing will get them a ticket for a better life abroad.

I think, there're already too many students who follow up nursing these days and there's already too much competition going on for the few local hospitals who will hire them here, and in the case of looking for a nursing job abroad, one must complete and pass another exam so he or she will be accustomed to the standards of nursing in other countries, like the US.

Parents spend lots of money on their children for them to finish up nursing in the Philippines, in the hundreds of thousands of pesos if not close to a million pesos for their education.

Although, when a nurse has passed all exams, local and foreign, she or he must be hired and most of the foreign hospitals will hire an experienced nurse first before they will hire a nurse that does not have any practical experience, so it's very difficult for a just out-of-school nurse to get a job abroad.

Picture: This is a graduation of a February 2007 class of nurses. Only 49% passed their final exam and what you see, the amount of nurses are only half of the 49%, the other half will come in the afternoon for their graduation to accept their degree. The 51% are not there, as they did not pass the final exam, but can retry another time. Can you imagine, if 100% passes, how many nurses will you see in the Philippines. There're just not enough local hospitals for them to find a job, much less going abroad. So, you can see, much unemployment in the Philippines.

Volunteering in the Philippines

Well, it came that far. I am doing something out of the house. In the subdivision where we live, we have a gate with a guardhouse with guards guarding on a 24-hour basis. This is to provide extra security for the residents. Many subdivisions in Manila have this set-up as this is very normal in the Philippines. There's also a main gate from the main road into the area where the streets lead to other subdivisions, including ours, and this main gate is also guarded on a 24-hour basis. So, we actually have to pass two gates before we reach our house. Quite a feat.

I am currently painting the area where our gate leads into our subdivision, as this gate was getting rusted. Also, one could see postlights hanging upside down and I wondered if I could do something about beautifying this area. Mind you, when you drive through this gate, usually you don't notice what is wrong with the gate area because, when you would live there, it's becoming second nature to just go through it and not notice anything around you anymore.

But, I did observe things that could get better there, so I offered my help and started painting the gate and posts. I started painting before the storm hit Manila, you know Ondoy first and then Pepeng, so I had to wait it out for a few days before I could continue my work (voulunteering) there. Could not ask for any money, as a foreigner can NOT work and receive payment in the Philippines. Although, in terms of how much a painter makes here "per day", it would for me be almost volunteering anyways. About 4.50 Euro a day in salary.

Anyways, much has been done already, and there's still the guardhouse that needs to be painted and the yellow/black lineage on the road, indicating that you are entering a sidestreet into a subdivision.

Today, however, I did some work and the guard was asking me something. I couldn't understand him first but after he showed me with some sign language, I understood that he wanted to have some sandpaper for "his revolver". His revolver was getting rusted, so he could sand the rust away on his revolver. Yes, they do run around with revolvers here. If they ever use it, I don't think so, otherwise his would not have been rusted. Right?

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Picture 1) Postlight hanging upside down before the President of the subdivision called someone to straighten it up.

Picture 2) The guardhouse with one of the four guards that are present at any moment of the 24-hour day.

Our Third Anniversary in the Philippines

Well, it's so far again that we are here in the Philippines for three years as of today. Yes, we had to fly on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, and that was on September 11, 2006 for us to move to the Philippines. We flew with Philippine Airlines, a nice flight I must say. We luckily were able to sit on the first row in the middle, so we had lots of legroom. There was a little old Filipina lady who sat next to us and she told us that she does this trip every year to see her children and grand-children in Vancouver, Canada, and we were complaining of long flights. She had to endure these flights two times a year, a 15 hour or so flight from Vancouver to Manila.

We also had our little dog with us and it was smooth sailing for this little monkey. They put her in the cargohold and we paid about C$300 (188 Euro) for her ticket that was actually luggage cost.

We stayed first in a two bedroom apartment close to downtown for a year, but after battling with 24 hour noise from trucks and a passenger train that runs behind the apartment building where it stops at 6:30 a.m. every morning with its horns blowing everyone awake, we decided to look for a place in the suburbs of Metro Manila, and now we live all the way south of Metro-Manila, namely in Las Pinas City.

For some reason, it feels like it that it has been 10 years that we live here instead of 3, because the enormous adjustment one has to make, as the Philippines is a very difficult country to live in for foreigners regarding settlement and adjustments due to a very different culture we have here.

There's much disorganization, unregulation, corruption and lawlessness, you name it, in every aspect of life, but one can only adjust to these things and understand its culture.

We enjoy very much the warm, sunny weather and cheaper life here and both our health prospered. But we surely needed to jump a lot of hurdels to get where we are today.

Walang Tubig

After enjoying months of having tap water flowing on their faucets, BF Paranaque homeowners staged a rally to protest and air their grievance over a decision of the village developer to stop Maynilad Water Services, Inc. from laying down water pipelines inside the subdivision.

BF Homes, where we also live, is the largest private subdivision in Asia with some 12,000 residential homes that encompass three Southern Metro Manila cities - Paranaque, Las Pinas and Muntinlupa.

When the subdivision opened sometime in the '50s, the residents were provided with a continious supply of potable water operated by a subsidiary, Philippine Waterworks and Construction Corp. (PWCC).

The regular supply continued till the late '70s when its underground water source (deep wells) began to dry up one after the other. By the '80s, water supply was rationed until only a few households were getting water from their taps.

Just hope, after the rally, people from both ends will come together and work together for a good outcome, so that they eventually continue laying the underground waterpipes, so everyone can get centralized water to their homes.

First picture:

Rally stopping on a corner and then marching further to the United BF Homeowners Association Park.

Second pictures:

Marching to the UBHAI Park.

Third picture:

In the Park listening to members who are defending to get waterpipes for each homeowner.

The importance of your real property documents

Since we sold a property a few weeks ago, I came to the realization that you really can learn a great deal about the documentation that is needed to transfer a property title. I have never really spent a great deal of time looking over these documents, but they say a lot when you do study them. It gives you an overview of what these lawyers/brokers/notaries really do when they transfer over a Title over to your name.

They usually give you all the necessary signed doc's and papers when you have acquired your Title, so you can go over it. To begin with, if you own a house and lot, you need to have of each a Declaration of Real Property document of the house and lot (same as with condominiums). On the document of the lot, it states the Assessor's findings with the Area size, price per sq/m (Unit Value) and the Market Value. They calculate this by multiplying the Unit Value with the Area of the lot.

On the house (not the lot), you find the description of the Building and Other Improvements, and that is where they go from when you have a house on the lot. That is at the back of the Declaration of Real Property document for the house.

Also at the back of the Declaration of Real Property document states the Assessment by Board of Assessment Appeals where you will find the Market Value, the Assessment Level and the Assessed Value for both your house and lot. The Assessment LEVEL, which is stipulated in percentage (%), is the most important to see how much you have to pay for your yearly Property (Real Estate) Tax, as many municipalities have different percentage levels. It can be as high as 60% or maybe more, all depends in what city or town you live in the Philippines. Most of them are in the range of 20% to 35%.

The Market Value seems also important, as you then can see how much your house or lot is actually worth. One should actually want to see the Declaration of Real Property first "before" one buys a house and lot, as you can see on the document what the Market Value of your future property is, as many salespeople or sellers will have a much higher asking price for their property than actually the market value states on this document. So, buyers, be aware.

I assume also that many lots have not been re-assessed for many, many years, and that is why you sometimes see a very low Unit Value (price per sq/m) on the document. Some may go back as in the sixties or even earlier. New subdivisions are more updated, as they are usually surveyed at a recent time, so a higher Unit Value for the lot.

As we go from the Assessed Value, one can calculate how much you will have to pay for your yearly Property Tax at the Treasure's Office of the city where the property is located. For one city, they calculate 1% of your property's Assessed Value, which you have to pay for your Basic property tax payment. In another city, it's 1.5% for Basic (and 1% for a Special Education Fund) payment in many cases of condominiums for example.

It can really make a big difference in what city in Metro Manila you live, as some really charge a lot in property taxes and others really very little, and the area of your property can be even in a more desirable neighborhood in the city where you pay very little tax as opposed to the one where you pay over your head. Depends who is sitting at City Council and the Mayor, where they decide how high the percentage is of the Assessment Level.

Tagaytay City, Cavite

We decided today to take a drive to Tagaytay City, Cavite, the second summer capital of the Philippines. It was a sunny day and a nice drive from our place in Las Pinas via the Daang Hari road and via Silang along Aguinaldo Highway. Went through the rice fields, over little bridges, crossing several intersections, and no toll. If we would have taken the South Expressway, we would have paid toll, although very little.

Once in Tagaytay, you encounter lots of restaurants and hotels left and right along the road. You also find a new Robinsons Supermarket there and they are planning to build an SM Mall, too. When this will happen, nobody knows.

On the way back, we drove through fog in Tagaytay. That is one thing you don't see in Metro Manila, but this reminded me of driving in Belgium, two worlds apart, but still in the Philippines.
During this time of year, you have many days that it rains in Tagaytay, I think a little bit more than in Metro Manila during the rainy season. It's normal, as Tagaytay is on a higher altitude than Manila, and it's cooler, too, pretty much the whole year in that aspect. Some folks like that.

We took a different route when returning to Las Pinas, and we took the road north via the municipality of Amadeo, the "coffee capital of the Philippines". It's a very pictorial place with a nicely decorated Municipal Hall. Of course the coffee beans are part of it.

Picture 1: Fog in Tagaytay
Picture 2: Amadeo Municipal Hall
Picture 3: Coffee cup and can on Amadeo's Municipal Plaza
Picture 4: Barako coffee, Philippine's most favoured coffee.

* * S*O*L*D **

It's the first time we experience a sale in the Philippines. We happened to have had a little house in Cavite, namely in Barangay San Francisco, General Trias, and since we advertised it on the Internet, someone accidentally clicked on this page and contacted us to ask if we could show the house to them. They happen to live in Tagaytay City, the second summer capital of the Philippines, about 30 minute drive away from the house. So, we met and gladly showed them the house. They immediately fell in love with the house, as it resembled to where they live, but it's about twice as big. They live in a rented two storey 48 sq/m condo, and ours is 84 sq/m.

Anyways, we came to close the deal, and with a very good price, they could not go wrong with this. The house was built by Camella Homes, a reputable local developer and builder. But when you see the quality inside the house, it's not that good, compared to what we, as westerners, are used to in the west. They also built the house "bare", and what this means is just the house, but no kitchen cupboards, ceramic tiles, blinds, fence, landscaping, etc... That would be all on your account. But, it's still very cheap for a foreigner, just to buy a house here and get settled, but with this price, for a local, this price is 10 times his or her yearly salary, so it's out of their budget.

So, with that, the couple we sold it to has a 2.5 year old son who loves to play outside and just a few steps away from the house is a small playground, so it's perfect for this couple.

The husband is an Englishmen, married to a Filipina. He worked as an expat for 10 years in Hong Kong as an IT Specialist, and due to downsizing and the current financial crisis, he was laid off.

We promised them to do the transfer of Title, too, as in most cases lawyers manipulate papers here. Both us and the buyer agreed to it at first and we were on our way to complete all the steps, but in the Philippines, there's sooooo much paperwork involved to get a service done at each office, we decided at the second step of the way to give all documents to a qualified broker for them to complete the transfer of the Title. The buyer gave about 150 Euro for the broker's service and about 30 Euro as extra money to fasten the service at certain offices. It's a little bit of smear money, you can say, to boost the employee's salary, as they will hasten your transfer.

But we all were happy with how the sale went.

First picture: The house.
Second picture: Subdivision clubhouse.

Tubig

Last Saturday, in our subdivision, we had one special association meeting regarding installation of a water (tubig) distribution system. Every house on the block has now a water system that consists of an electric waterpump, a 500 gallon overhead water tank and a pressure tank. We all get our water from deep under the ground. The water usage is free when you use the pressure tank as a means to get your water into the house, but one must calculate more electricity usage when the electric pump starts to work. But many people call a water truck to deliver water to their 500 gal. overhead water tank. They pay a meager P200 (3 Euro) to fill up these tanks, and a family of about 4 can use this for about a week.

Now, we have a golden opportunity for all residents in the subdivision to have an underground water distribution system installed, with a price of course. In the long run, it will pay out itself, as the charge will be eventually be about P511 (7.75 Euro) for 25 per cubic meter (2.925m x 2.925m x 2.925m) of water used. The cost of the underground water installation throughout the subdivision will be about P43,000 (660 Euro) per house. Although, a resident can choose a deferred payment plan for 48 months, interest-free. That is why we had a meeting in the courtyard of one of our neighbors to see if people are in favour.

We were asked in the meeting if we are proposing or are opposed to the installation of the water system. All in the meeting said yes to the water installation, about 64 members, but half of the residents in the subdivision seem not to have come, so that's another 65 or so. We are half way, and so far 50% are in favour of the installation, so the work should go ahead and be finished in about 2 years.

The water will also be a lot cleaner as it now is. Deep underground is always dirty with sand and soil in it, and a person can do away with all the water tank structures at the back of their house, so one will have more space. Some people may want to keep their water pump if they still want to use it in case there is no underground water from the newly installed water pipes to their house.

They will soon start installation of the major roads around our subdivision, so we need to wait a little to see them coming into our area. The underground piping is already in place in our streets since the sixties, and I don't know why they never bothered to fully utilize it, probably, because in general Filipinos are very conservative in making major decisions.

First picture: the water truck that delivers water to residents. There are several that ply around here. They pump water into the overhead water tanks of people's homes.

Second picture: an example of a 500 gal. overhead water tank, usually at the back of the house.

Debt of Gratitude

Debt of gratitude is very big in the Philippines, more so here than in countries like Belgium or Canada, where one leaves each other usually alone when one does a favor for another. One just feels, it is up to the other person to show humanity and do a favor back. But in the Philippines, one is indebted till death, or even after, if he or she has any children, they'll even bother them.

Here it's called: Utang Na Loob, literally a "debt of the inner self".

In a Filipino family, every Filipino has utang na loob to someone. In the workplace, an employer will find that his employee, who is not so skilled or is not so secure in doing his job, but who has many family members and friends in government positions or in the circle of clients may be most effective because he has built up a bank of utang na loob.

This goes back to when the Americans where here after World War II, as the Philippines where in a debt of gratitude position when they did negotiations then. Filipino leaders felt a sense of utang na loob for the American "liberation" of the Philippines from Japan. That is why the Philippine government let the Americans have US military bases here.

Even though, the bases were here for many years, the then government was well getting nicely compensated on a yearly basis of about US$900 million for leasing these bases out, but if the US and their bases had a positive influence to the Filipino society, only a Filipino can tell you the answer.

Expensive house prices in the Philippines

The Philippines has a culture of people who are working full-time abroad, namely Overseas Filipino Workers. About 20% of the local workforce work abroad. They usually earn a better salary than the workforce here, about on average 5 times more per month. With so many Filipinos working abroad, you will have also occasions that a Filipino/a will marry a person from abroad, too. Usually, most of these cases are Filipino women who will marry a foreigner.

This has been a trend that many Filipinos work abroad and marry foreigners for more than 30 years, more so in the last 20 years when there was a world economic boom since the 90's.

With these numbers, housing developers and contractors alike are really targeting these Overseas Foreign Workers and foreign spouses to invest in buying a property in the Philippines. Many buy houses that are renovated in Metro Manila, in the event they have to go back to the Philippines when their job is not there anymore, or the foreign spouse wants to retire there later in life because of many reasons, like a better climate.

I can see, many of these homes are overpriced to reflect on the salary of the foreigner or OFW. They are not really the prices for locals. I find it very shameful on the part of the contractor who build a new house or renovate an existing house. The reason is that he can hire very cheap labor, as a carpenter or mason makes about 3.75 Euro a day, yes a day. Building materials are really cheap here. For example, a regular bag of cement costs about 2.50 Euro. One concrete block to build a wall costs about 10 cents US. All depends on the quality, but most of the contractors buy the lower quality, as the buyer never will see the concrete blocks anyways as they are already hidden with the plastering of the wall when the wall is finished. Ceramic tiles is another one. A nice 16" x 16" tile costs here about 75 cents Euro a piece. Labor to lay those tiles are very cheap, too. I've installed in the house in General Trias, a 900 sq/ft home, tiles and paid the contractor we hired 105 Euro, that is a contractor who hired the tile setter. I can not imagine of how little he paid the worker from the 105 Euro I gave the contractor.

The Spanish were here in the Philippines for about 300 years till the beginning of the 20th. century, and they exploited the Filipino people very much. Now it is happening from their own people.

So, one can build a nice two-storey house for about 20,000 Euro and sell it to a foreigner or OFW for about three times more, quite a nice profit. The local workmen are usually very qualified and do very nice cement work inside and outside the house. These workers usually did not get very much basic education, as their parents were mostly poor and the opportunities for them where not there when they were young, so the educated and the powerful are in a way still exploiting the weak and the lower class, and in turn make a huge profit from low wages and cheap available material on hand.

Market values of houses here in the Philippines are not regulated, so anyone can set their own price, but I have seen houses not being sold for many years. That is why many of the local people have never a chance to own a house, as many of the builders ask too much money and too many builders target the OFW or the foreigner, so to make maximum profit. Where is humanity in this?

In some parts of Canada, you can still find a house that is about 90,000 Euro (about C$145,000), and the wages in Canada are quite high, so most people can really afford a home in their own country.

On the picture, you see this house in Canada standing on a 4.7 acre land, for sale for C$145,000. Most of the homes are better equipped in Canada than most of the homes in the Philippines. Most homes there have already a fridge, stove and dishwasher included. Here, a dishwasher is still unheard of.

Being Filipino

When I first arrived in the Philippines, I did not have a hard time getting around with my English and telling the taxi drivers where to go. I saw a lot of western style restaurants and shopping malls where one would feel at home, like you would in your own country. Filipinos really cater to your westernized needs and you would feel that Filipinos are very much westernized, as well.

But that is only skin-deep. Behind a Filipino is still a barrio person hidden. Many long to go back to their roots. A lot of the locals here live in housing not used to foreigners. Many work in areas where they serve the foreigners, speak like a foreigner, but their lifestyle is still very much Filipino.

Their cuisine is still of what mother cooked a generation ago, unlike the fast-food stuff many westerners eat. Bringing up their children is the Filipino way, unlike many do in the western societies.

Although, many foreigners feel a western side in the Philippines, it is only veneer thick.

Also, the local ways of doing business is different of what westerners are used to. Being a little late is polite, much bureaucracy in doing business is Filipino style, and you have other ones. The way certain things are done is also sometimes different as to what a foreigner would do.

All in all, at least they go half-way for us, to foreigners, to cater our needs, and it's very important to understand and accept their differences to live a harmonious existence with our fellow neighbours.

Jeepneys, too many to count

When you come to the Philippines, you will be acquainted with a vehicle, namely the Jeepney. It's a common public transportation for many locals to and from work, on a daily basis. These vehicles are very loud and heavy, and I assume, they consume a lot of petrol. Where we live in Manila, they have an abundance of stock of them on the road, and when you drive with your car, you surely need to avoid them, as most of the drivers of these workhorses just go left and right, stop and go anytime they want, so be careful if you ever have to drive around here. If you get a dent into your nice car, it will be painful, but for them, that is only a scratch beside the many dents and holes in their vehicle.

The first jeepneys were actually the army jeeps from World War II, numbering into the hundreds that were all over the country, but mainly in Metro Manila. After the war, the Americans left these jeeps behind and the locals had ideas to transform them into a jeepney of today. Some of these jeepneys are very well decorated. If you have ever seen several jeepneys, you will notice that no jeepney is exactly the same as another. Sometimes the design and decorations on the vehicle takes more time than building the jeepney.

Sometimes you see blinker lights inside the jeepney, so passengers can pull a string and the light comes on for the driver to stop.

People usually pay up their fare, but the driver has usually no idea if everyone has paid on a given moment. He is just hoping that everyone is honest. Sometimes, you see religious banners on their jeepneys stating "God knows that Judas did not pay".

You can also see by their flashy designs on their jeepneys that the Philippines had a Spanish era and an American era, when you see Elvis Presley and Virgin Mary painted on the side of their vehicle.

(Pictures: 1. Todays Public Utility Jeepney. 2. Private Jeepney. 3. Old WWII Jeep)

Maids in the Philippines

It's very common for locals and expatriate households to have a live-in maid, as it is very affordable for the middle class to have domestic help. A live-in maid makes on average P3,000 a month and P5,000 for a nanny. She will also be eating your food and you should budget for this in your grocery bill.

If your work life is hectic, a maid can make your life much easier. Household chores then become a thing of the past. You'll always have a clean shirt to wear, always have food on the table and the house will be clean. They also usually wash your car in the morning and clean the street in the evening or even in the morning (e.i. wiping the fallen leaves).

Maids will often become a part of the family. Some maids, particularly younger ones, may take advantage of you by making excessive use of your telephone, as many are still homesick.

A maid will be your advisor on local customs, pay your bills on time, wash your clothes, guard your house while your are away.

However, if you choose the wrong maid, she may steal from you. She may even let people into the house while you are away.

Maids are easy to find. You could try advertising in the local supermarket or use a local agent.

It is a very good idea to have them examined by a doctor. Typical tests will include parasites and a chest x-ray for tuberculosis and you will absorb the cost of the medical. It is advisable to repeat the test annually and it's best done when they return from their annual leave.

Picture: Maids at work in the morning in our neighbourhood.

Slums in Metro Manila

Almost 1 billion people live in slums worldwide and the highest number is in Asia. That is about 1 in 7 people. About 20 million people live in the slums in the Philippines alone, and 1/10 of them live in Metro Manila.

Most of these people who end up in slum areas were once village people (poor farmers) who sought better jobs in the city.

I've read something more in detail why it all happened.

The reasons why squatter settlements occur in the third world cities can be broken down into two main reasons:

Pull factors and Push factors.

"Pull factors" are the reasons why people are attracted to move TO a particular area, and "Push factors" are what make them go FROM where they are at the moment.

Push factors might include:

Farming is not invested in - without investment, people who live in rural areas (who mostly farm) cannot improve yields and so have little to eat/sell.

Extreme physical conditions such as aridity, mountains - these can make life difficult, from simple points as the daily weather to growing crops.

Overpopulation - too many people and not enough resources.

Mechanization causes a reduction in the number of jobs - this means people are forced to look elsewhere for jobs.

Pressure on the land.

Natural disasters kill crops, people and livestock - the more that is lost, the less people have.

Starvation - this could be caused by famine, and so people are forced to move to where there is a food supply.

Overgrazing - this causes soil erosion and loss of yields.

Local communities forced to move - war, famine, etc... can force people to go to safer places.

Lack of services (such as hospitals and schools) - people would want to find a better education and level of health care for themselves and their families.

Families do not own land - this means landowners can evict people whenever they want.

Pull factors might include:

Looking for better paid jobs - urban areas are larger and have more and a larger variety of paid work.

Better chance of putting children through school - urban areas hav schools.

Expect more comfortable housing - with services such as electricity and water available, this should improve quality of life.

Religious and political activities can be carried out more safely in cities.

Have a higher quality of life.

Attracted to the 'bright lights' of opportunity - urban areas are perceived as having greater chances for so many different reasons.

Better chance of access to services - a higher concentration of them in urban areas, should increase chances of access, as there are little (if any) in many rural areas.

More reliable food sources - instead of relying on growing own crops, buy it with wages instead.

No bureaucracy and zero property taxes.

Once these people get to the city, they realize that jobs are difficult to find and that they cannot afford housing, with the little money they brought with them, so they build their own homes on land that no one owns (or is owned by the government) called favelas. While the favelas have drug traffickers, most people who live in the favelas are honest people, and many have jobs that are not well paid but do provide some income for their families.

This is true in many third, second and sometimes first world countries. The problem is that people often 'give up' all they have in their home town in order to travel to the 'big city' to make their fortune. They arrive in the city with little money they have left runs out, and they are left with no means to travel back to their hometown (assuming they had something to go back to) and so they have to make the best of life in the big city i.e. no jobs, no income, no permanent/safe home. Usually the slums have a community, and these communities have a positive and negative side. Because people are sometimes desperate for money, they might turn to drug dealing, theft, prostitution, etc... on the other hand, many of these communities have their own 'welfare' systems. Charitable organizations often work in these communities providing food and water, health care, sanitation and sometimes education. in other words, even though people might not have any income, their lives can still be better than in their home towns.

Street People

In Metro Manila you see quite a few people living on and of the street, many of them just children. There is an estimated 1.5 million "street children" in the Philippines and 75,000 or so in Metro Manila alone. You also see adults living from the street selling a thing or two (cigarettes, candies, bottled water or newspapers), usually in the middle of the street, to jeepney drivers and motorists alike. They are mostly vendors. They bring their children/babies with them on their daily tasks.

Others, you see them begging, many of them are also children or just toddlers. They beg for a peso here and there, knocking on the windows of the cars. Usually, their parents are somewhere else and just collect at the end of the day the earned money that their children made begging, or does that really happen that they share their loot to them, if any of them have parents around?

This is a on-going problem in Metro Manila. These street dwellers could go to drop-in centers or the Department of Social Welfare at the place where they are, but many choose to live a lifestyle on the street. Many times, the problem lies in the people's attitudes towards life. Some of them are proud enough to look for other sources of income, while others take the easy way out and go begging.

One other reason why beggars (mendicants) are reluctant to leave their turf is the alms and free food they get from people. These simple acts of gesture encourage them to continue this way of life. Who needs work if you can earn a hundred pesos a day just from begging?

Many boys in the streets are without parents and many times these boys become addicted to drugs like sniffing glue or become a gang member later in life. Street girls usually get into early prostitution with tourists and locals to earn extra money.

Many of these children you see on the streets were sexually abused, physically maltreated, abandoned, neglected, victims of broken homes, and from families devastated by poverty.

At present, there are about 300 agencies of all kinds working with street children in the Philippines.

It's quite a problem, as this is part of society we live in in Metro Manila. Haven't seen any street children anywhere in the provinces, but I'm sure, you'll find them somewhere.

Metro Manila Skyway

Not much has happened today. We did a little bit of cleaning in the house and gardening.

For people living in Metro Manila and having a car, one must have gone on the South Luzon Highway and possible also on the Skyway. They seem to extend now the Skyway from Bicutan to Alabang, which is Phase 2. It should have been started in 2005 and finished in 2007, but with many delays, it only started sometime late last year. This construction will go on for a while, and I don't see it finished in 2 years' time.

We occasionally drive by there, and they have placed a few pillars already (the amount of steel and concrete that goes in these pillars is incredible), and the middle of the road is already been barricaded to Sucat interchange.

You can see the red lines as Phase 2 extension on the map (southern part) and Phase 3 will extend from Buendia to Balintawak interchange (connecting the North Luzon Highway). This is all overhead road where one never will encounter much traffic. They are trying to match the road infrastructure of Malaysia. In ten years' time, Manila will look a lot different with hopefully good traffic flow. They are toll roads and one must pay money for using these roads.

A non-driving day

Well, today was a quiet day. On Wednesdays, we can not drive due to the one day non-driving day here in Manila. Our license plate number ends with 6, so that is a Wednesday. Plates ending with 5 and 6 can not drive today.

So, I surfed the web a little and found a good blog from a U.S. gentleman married to a Filipina. He was born as a Jew, but is now an atheist of nature. Retired and lives in Eastwood City, Q.C. He rents a flat there. According to him, there are about 100 or so Jewish Filipinos in Metro Manila. They have an association somewhere.

Otherwise, I took a picture of the house across our street. The owner (which is a building contractor) renovates his house and will sell it after it is done. Above is a worker doing the concrete posts. He seems very experienced.

General Trias, Cavite

The last day of June today. Yesterday, Aida and I went to General Trias to do some paperwork on registering a house. We did not realize that we did not have this and soon we'll be selling this house, so all papers must be in order to transfer the title over to the new owners.

Two surveyors came along with us to the house, about 10 minutes away from their office in Trece Martires at the Assessor's Office. While we were waiting, we went out of the office, we noticed that there was also a Courthouse on the same floor. There happen to be just on that day several court appearances for inmates. Young men with yellow shirts and written at their back: " Inmate # and city jail of Cavite somewhere". They seem a clean bunch of skinny guys sitting on the floor, surrounded with guards and policemen with cell phone in their hand. There were even some vendors who were selling some sweet bananas to the guards, when I saw one of these guards sharing his treat to one of the inmates.

All in all, after about a four hour process (well there was an hour lunch in between), the surveyors were able to give us the registration of our house.

Introduction

Hello. My name is Raf (Ralph in English) . My wife Aida, and I, moved to the Philippines in 2006 from Canada. I was actually born in Belgium, although my wife is from the Philippines. Due to my poor health at that moment, I could not see myself going back to work. Even though, there was short-term disability insurance for me, the stress that caused these insurances took more toll on my sickness. So, we decided to take a chance moving where my wife is from. We live in Metro Manila and must say, we've been through a lot of culture shocks.

It's only after 2.5 years of being here now, my good health came back, and actually my wife's health got also better since she quit her job as a nurse's aide in a nursing home where she complained lots of times of shoulder and knee pain due to constant lifting of the residents. The pain went away by itself since we came here.

We are both middle aged and are now early retired here, as life is also overall cheaper where we are now than in Canada, so it's manageable.

Anyways, it's a short introduction and see you around!