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.