A few of my friends that 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 travelling, 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 aboard.
You’ll often be viewed as a cash cow and are expected to contribute to everything from local functions to staff and their extended families 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. 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 gun point 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 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 ran 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 stop like the rest of the traffic. I was worried about him 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. They’re 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’s they’re parent’s, brother’s, sister’s, children’s operations, lawyer, drug habit, education, funeral etc etc. Blood is definitely thicker when a family of 12 are putting the pressure on.
You can be held responsible for the actions of others (probably because you have money and they don’t so there’s no point chasing them). One friend employed a young local guy that 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 causes problems or damage my friend must pay for his actions. My friend contacted the guys 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 that 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 take over. It’s also hard to find work when there’s a Filipinos 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 licence 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 happy and queues of doctors unnecessarily visiting patients rooms just to add their fees. Not something that you’d want as a someone getting on in years and living on a budget. This is a major reason for retirees deciding to leave.
Ever increasing employment restrictions for non Filipinos mean less prospects for younger migrants. There’s a long list of jobs that are not available to foreigners and of those roles that are allowed the company has to prove that there’s no one local who could do the job. That leaves online or remote working as the main way people could stay employed while living in the Philippines. In days gone by foreigners could get away with working on an illegal cash only system but the world is becoming a cashless society and this is slowly trickling into all areas. Online data bases and checking is also affecting the black market.
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 threat of the “Big one” earthquake hitting anytime soon. The hot humid weather also ruins stuff like leather, rubber and most electrical items.
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 cost’s doesn’t have the full picture. Red tape and an ever increasing number of payments and requirements to stay along with all of the things listed above end up making many frustrated and feeling unwelcome and unfairly discriminated against as if the Philippines just wants your money and that’s it.
Here is an interesting article written about how expats are treated in the Philippines.
Philippine Expats: How we Treat Them
Foreigners living in the Philippines are often perceived as financially privileged by the general public. Their distinct physical features make them easily recognizable among the local crowd. Yet behind this visibility lies a quiet reality — they remain outsiders, rarely accepted as fully one of us. It’s no surprise that whenever they speak their minds, some locals are quick to tell them to “go back home.”
What many Filipinos — and even the government — fail to recognize is that the expatriate community is among the biggest contributors to our economy. They pay higher taxes than most ordinary citizens and are often the largest spenders, keeping money circulating within our system because they bring in assets and pensions that far exceed the average Filipino income and consumption. Others establish businesses that create jobs, marry locals and uplift families from poverty, or found charitable organizations that feed children, rescue stray animals, and support environmental preservation. Their initiatives often yield more measurable results than some local non-government organizations combined.
Despite these contributions, expats remain largely unacknowledged and underappreciated. They are granted limited rights and freedoms — a stark contrast to the privileges our overseas Filipino workers and residents abroad enjoy in foreign lands. Expats are even discouraged from joining political discussions, though their taxes are subject to the same corruption that burdens ordinary Filipinos. The government gladly welcomes their money but offers no equal rights, no ownership privileges, and no clear path to citizenship in return. In theory, if you give large amounts of money to someone and cannot ask questions or have no adequate legal protection for your wealth, you are being scammed. Yet, in practice, expats often find themselves in exactly that situation.
Meanwhile, some expats also suffer personal misfortunes that expose the fragility of their situation. I once helped a homeless British man during my years in Thailand, unaware that years later, while living in Panglao, I would help another expat with a similar story — money gone, love lost, and nowhere to turn. Fortunately, countless success stories balance the scale: expats who have built families, created livelihoods, and embraced our country despite its imperfections.
Expats deserve fairness, respect, and basic equality — not a life shadowed by uncertainty or fear of losing everything they worked hard for abroad. They are the quiet contributors, the Unseen Society, helping the Philippines prosper while remaining outsiders in the very nation they chose to call home.
But my question lingers: Why do we allow arrogance and entitlement to make their lives a constant struggle, as though they were intruders? It’s time we finally recognize their worth — not as outsiders, but as part of the community that helps our nation move forward. I’m aware that my small voice may fall into a vacuum of indifference from the government and seem insignificant to local communities, yet speaking up for our Unseen Contributors is still necessary — for acknowledgment, for fairness, and for the dignity that every human being deserves, regardless of nationality or culture.
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”!
The question 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 criticising 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 reason given on this related question.
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