A few of my friends who still live or did live in the Philippines have told me the things that they find make living in the Philippines challenging. These are guys that vary from 30-somethings who came over for a holiday or to work and decided to stay and set up businesses to retirees who were traveling, sometimes with family, and decided to stay. Some of the latter are now in their 80s:
I lived there, based in Manila from 2015 until 2022, and met many people both ex-pats and locals. I found the country both frustrating and charming.
Here are my thoughts.
You’re never fully accepted into the country. For example, during covid a friend who’d lived in the Philippines for over 30 years was told to go home when he arrived home (Scotland) after a trip abroad.
You’ll often be viewed as a cash cow and are expected to contribute to everything from local functions to staff and their extended family's hospital bills and weddings (check the same person hasn’t died multiple times) but you’ll often get little if anything in return. No respect, no thanks, no loyalty, no bonhomie.
The rule of law works against you but not for you. If you do wrong you’ll get big fines and need to employ local lawyers to act on your behalf but if you’re wrongly done by you’ll still need to pay to receive any help. For example, you pay taxes and give money to the community, Barangay, the local police, fire brigade, etc but if you have a fire there’ll be demands for payment if you want the fire dealt with and if you’re home is robbed you’ll be expected to hand over some money if you want a real investigation. Bribes, fixer fees, and kickbacks are so commonplace that they’re sometimes requested as if they’re nothing out of the ordinary at all. With elderly friends, I’ve experienced being threatened at gunpoint by a driver who almost drove into our table in his heavily tinted SUV in a golf club car park. He opened the door and almost fell out while holding a gun and yelling incoherently. He was completely intoxicated and luckily a passenger restrained him. Another friend went to check up on an unmoving car that was on a traffic island in the middle of the road outside his house at 1am. The intoxicated driver came to and realising that my friend was not Filipino started yelling “You’re not Filipino, I kill you” as he lurched out of the car with a gun in hand. My friend ran away not wanting to give his home address away. Scary stuff for a foreigner and very little chance of any police intervention. It also affects locals involved with foreigners as well. Our golf club treasurer, a lady in her early 40s took home the money raised by the players to find a big Christmas party and a raffle for the caddies, groundsmen, and tee boys and girls (plus families). The total was approximately 50,000 pesos and most of that was raised that day at our Christmas golf day and party. She was MURDERED in her own home for that money and no one was ever brought to justice.
If you’re involved in an accident you’ll almost always be at fault, even if you weren’t. I had a motorbike rider run straight into the wing of my car as I was driving into my workplace car park. He was riding along in the cycling lane and didn’t take notice of the security guard and stopped like the rest of the traffic. I was worried about him and then about myself as an angry mob who hadn’t even seen the accident gathered. One guy started yelling at me and was getting very aggressive. Thankfully our security guard and a workmate sorted the situation out. The security guard pointed out that the whole incident was on my dash cam and was being recorded on the worksite cameras and my workmate countered his aggressive behaviour with his own. The rider was escorted to the hospital three doors away but didn’t go in. Others tell of stories where one occupant in a car or tricycle has turned into five, all with injuries, and where stopping to help when a car in front has veered off of the road has ended up with them being accused of causing the accident. Lesson learnt/learned, be aware that you’re not in your home country and some see you as an easy target.
Be wary of trusting too much. You can think that your friend, girlfriend, or employee can be trusted because you’ve known them for some time, been good to them, sympathetic to their needs, put their children through school, and have helped them through all sorts of problems. The problem is that their loyalty may be swayed by greed or external pressure or even threats. Their family may pressurise them to borrow money or even steal using guilt and loyalty to family as leverage. Many Filipinos are also regularly in debt and the (illegal) loan shark’s interest rates are high. Money back or else may force an otherwise loyal helper to steal. Then there are their parents, brothers, sisters, children’s operations, lawyers, drug habits, education m, funerals etc etc. Blood is definitely thicker when a family of 12 is putting the pressure on.
You’re responsible for the actions of the people that you employ. One friend employed a young local guy whom he felt sorry for because he’d been kicked out of his job and had no money or place to stay. Two years later the guy was drinking too much and causing problems. My friend had already dismissed him from employment because of this but was told by the local police that if he caused problems or damage my friend must pay for his actions. My friend contacted the guy's family but they didn’t want anything to do with their son. This is still going on.
You cannot own land, only the property on the land, and sometimes the person who sold you the property didn’t have the right to sell you it in the first place. You can only own a 40% share in a business meaning that you can lose your business due to a 60/40 takeover. It’s also hard to find work when there’s a Filipino first employment rule in place.
Then of course there’s the constant corruption, endless red tape, unexpected hurdles, and the general lack of consistency and moving of goalposts. Plus things are always broken or not available. To make things go or work as they should you often have to pay a “fixing” fee, even if everything is being done legitimately otherwise the process is ridiculously slow and convoluted. This is why even locals sometimes pay for things like a fake driving license when they could pass the test and get a real, legitimate one but it would take time and several trips to get.
Healthcare can also be a reason to leave. Although there are some good hospitals and doctors they’re only in the biggest cities and all of them are private. I heard many stories of serious misdiagnosis, surgeons being knife, and queues of doctors unnecessarily visiting patients' rooms just to add their fees. Not something that you’d want as someone getting on in years and living on a budget.
And we haven’t even touched on the weather which varies from oppressively hot to torrential deluges. The terrible traffic (which seems to be improving). And the threat of the “Big one” earthquake hitting anytime soon.
Yes, life in the Philippines can be fun, but it is also a very frustrating place and a challenge. Anyone who is initially wowed by the hospitable people, hot weather, nice beaches, and cheap living costs doesn’t have the full picture.
Edit additional.
If you read the replies below you will see how some have reacted to what I’ve written. Many along the lines of “If you don’t like it you can leave”, ”Toughen up”, “Why should we pander to your wishes” or “It’s like that everywhere in SE Asia”.
THE QUESTION IS “WHY ARE FOREIGNERS LEAVING THE PHILIPPINES”!
It is not “What don’t you like about the Philippines” or “What do you think is wrong with the Philippines” or even “Why did you choose to leave the Philippines”. It is not asking just about myself, although being foreign my own experiences do count. The question is asking about foreigners generally.
I’m simply answering this question the best I can with my own opinion along with experiences and stories that were told to me by the many foreigners that I got to know when I lived there, of which many I still keep in contact with. Some are still there, some have left and some have since passed away.
I know Filipinos are emotional and don’t like criticism but this question is not going to generate a happy, smiley, singing and dancing showtime response. The fact is that many long-term resident foreigners are deciding to leave. These foreigners obviously chose to move to the Philippines for positive reasons and they don’t generally leave because things are so great!
I’d also question whether the people who are rebuking or criticizing have gotten so used to things being as they are they fail to see it as wrong anymore, have little or no experience of other countries so think that these bad things happen everywhere or perhaps they are benefiting from it? I know many Filipinos also suffer and would love to be able to leave.
Perhaps those who’ve been involved in the other side of the law may in some ways fit in better because they’re more likely to understand how the darker underbelly of the place works.
There are also some good reasons given for this related question.
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