What is your honest opinion about the Philippines and Filipino people?

John Jelsovsky

I absolutely LOVE the Philippines and the Filipino people. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I'm engaged to a Filipina. Full disclosure: Besides my fiancee, I also have quite a few Filipino friends and pretty much always have had at least some. My best friend when I was in 6th grade was from the Philippines and my first freelance job was designing a database and an inventory system for a Filipino grocery. Oddly enough I didn't visit the country until 2013.

Yes, the Philippines has its problems. It is still poor, but less so than in the recent past. And there is still corruption, but again less so. And it is still hot and prone to typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Well, not much you can do about that one, but no place is perfect.

Since I brought up the negatives of Philippines geography, I should bring up the positives. Both the beaches and the mountains are absolutely beautiful. And when you can see the mountains from the beaches, even better.

I spent most of my time there in the Visayas, mostly Cebu and Iloilo. I was very impressed. Both reminded me of my hometown - Tampa, FL - from back in the 80s when it was (IMHO) nicer than it is today. That alone would have made me feel at home, but the people were so friendly as well, I have never met a friendlier group of people.

I was not as impressed with Manila as with the smaller cities. I think it is just TOO big - kind of like NYC on a tropical island. It even has its own version of Manhattan in Makati. It's not quite as nice as NYC is today, more like before Giuliani's "broken window" policy. And speaking of Giuliani, the Philippines has their own version of him too, only on steroids, in the form of Mayor Duterte of Davao. That is one no-nonsense kind of guy. Maybe he goes a little too far, but as I understand it, Davao before Duterte was not a nice place. I think Detroit might want to borrow him for a while.

A couple of other things that other people may not mention. The food is really good and generally very cheap. Don't listen to the people who tell you how bad Filipino food is. They must be going to the wrong places. When I was there it was great, and about 1/3 the price as in the US. Of course beef is expensive and so is anything imported. But I had more kinds of fish than I knew existed , all of them extremely fresh (i.e. caught earlier that day) and fresh fruit (I didn't know that many kinds of bananas existed either.) And of course the ubiquitous rice with every meal. But I also had manok bisaya (native chicken) and lechon. If you go to Cebu, do not forget to try the lechon. Best pork dish ever! And eating all this (like a king!) I still managed to lose weight (which I need to still) because of all the exercise I got running around in the heat, climbing, swimming, and kayaking. I know the advertising slogan "more fun in the Philippines" is cliche, but for me anyway it was true.

Finally, I should mention that the Philippines remains an underrated country. Boracay is a big tourist spot but it really should be as big as Bali. And there are dozens more that are less well known, including Sumilon, just off the coast of Oslob, Cebu, where I spend a day and enjoyed it thoroughly. I also got to see the butanding (whale sharks) on my way out to it. But it is not just underrated in tourism. The Philippines is the call center/BPO capitol of the world. And half of the time you would never know you are talking to a Filipino and not an American. One time I recognized someone as Filipino only because he said "for a while" when putting me on hold. But his English was flawless and his accent sounded more like California than Manila. Also, what would the world do without Filipino nurses? And I know quite a few Catholic churches in the USA that would have a lot more problems if there weren't a group of Filipinos holding everything together. And finally, the country has practically had an economic miracle the last few years. Cut their debt in half and had a growth rate that rivals China's. If they weren't in China's shadow this would be headline news. I suspect it soon will be since China's growth is slowing. So is the Philippines', just not by as much. They may be the fastest growing economy in the world this year. If not, they will be near the top anyway. Of course they have a long way to go to catch up to Europe and the USA but you have to start somewhere and they are off to a fine start.

Well enough praise for the Philippines. I hope this did not run on too long or get too rambling. Thank you for the A2A