Some of the local people asked her if she would like to continue with the Rice Farm and if so they would assist her, for a price of course so she agreed as the land was doing nothing anyway so she decided to try to make a little extra cash from it! The local Farmers moved in with their Carabao Powered Equipment and started plowing the land, removing the weeds, constructing the Dyke’s, flooding the rice fields and plowing and leveling until they were satisfied that all was good and once they were happy they sewed the rice seed into the prepared fields! It did not take very long for the new rice shoots to break the surface of the water and when they did the color of green was really fantastic, it was a new life green and very satisfying to see!

As the Rice grew there were other thing to do as fertilizer had to be applied to the plants to make them grow healthy and commercial pesticide were added in order to stop the insects from eating the shoots! Weeds were also a problem as they would strangle the plants if they were not removed so periodically we would hire the traveling gang of female weeders who were very hard working and skillful at what they did! They also captured plenty of Rice Frogs as they worked and they would cook them up for their snacks! These Rice Frogs were only small but very delicious!

The only real problem that we had with growing rice came from a very mean Farmer who lived near by, his nick name was Saddam and it was a very suitable name for him! He would cut off our irrigation water and divert it to his own rice fields even if they were over flowing, he had no consideration for anybody else and was not very popular with anyone in the community! His action was a pain in the butt really but we would just keep on sending one man to stand by the irrigation to make sure that he did not dry us out!

Preparing the Rice Fields!

Once the rice was fully grown, the irrigation water was stopped and the fields allowed to dry out, this was the cause of the next problem which was totally natural! As the rice dried, swarms of small sparrows arrived in order to get their share of the harvest but this was a problem I was expecting as even back in England I made ready for a bit of farming and purchased a state of the art electronic machine which was guaranteed to keep birds away for an area of 10 Hectares and more but unfortunately no body told the local birds about this, it did not work on them at all so really it was a complete waste of money so we reverted to the local time tested method of getting a gang of kids with tin cans on a strings to scare the birds away! Strangely enough, the stupid bird eliminating machine worked very well on swarms of grasshopper! They never mentioned that in the handbook!

When the rice was dry and ready to harvest it was all hands on deck to get the harvest in before the birds got too much but once it was all in along came a man with the machine towed by his carabao which separated the rice from the stalks! For this service it was a share deal, for every so many cans of Rice or Palai as it is called his share would be one can of rice! I cannot remember the share but it was OK! Once the machine guy and the harvesters each got their share we took our rice to a nearby mill to have the hulls removed and the rice polished, once again the payment for this was a share and at last we could actually see our total share of the harvest which was good for us as we did not have to buy rice for quite some time!

After a couple of harvests of rice we were advised to grow Corn or Maize as its locally known by so once again, in came the Carabao guys to plow the fields, remove any weeds and get the land ready to plant! The planting was done by everyone in order to make it quick so even children followed the men who made holes with sticks for the seeds to be dropped into then the soil was pushed back into the hole with a workers foot to cover the seeds! As the Maize sprouted and was growing, Fertilizer and Pesticides were applied as required and plowing was done in between the rows by Carabao Plow without destroying a single plant! Growing maize was much easier than Rice as it was much less labor intensive and also the water requirements for Maize was much less than Rice!

Final preparation before the Seeds are Sown!

When it came to harvesting the Maize there was a group of people who specialized in this work and would clear the whole field on a share basis as usual so we did not really have much to do with the harvest except to keep an eye on the people doing the harvest! Once all the heads were gathered in, all the outer leaves were stripped off by hand and the heads and seeds were dried out in the sun! Once dry, the machine guy once again appeared and removed the seeds from the head and again got paid by share! One thing with a Maize Harvest was the fact that you could see your harvest immediately unlike Rice where there was still another step to finishing the final product! Some of the harvest we kept for animal feeds and some for our own use while the rest we sold in the market! The stalks were cut down and taken away by by people to feed their livestock then Cattle and Carabau were put into the fields to clear the stubble a bit more and also do a bit of organic fertilization for free!

Gathering the Rice Stalks for Animal Feeds!

The problem in a way for growing both Rice and Maize was that we had to pay people to do every step of the work which reduced our profit quite considerably, also our land was a bit small having only about 1.5 hectares to farm where 4 hectares would have been much better! For a local farming family who does all the work themselves the profits are larger but usually after they have paid off their credit to everyone they are really no better of than we managed!

The Maize Harvest!

As this was going on, Ellie was playing with the seeds which we had shipped out in our container from England but this was not too successful! The Tulips and Daffodils we brought out were planted but without a bit of cold weather to activate them they never woke up! The other flowers grew but were not at all like they should have been! Short border type flowers grew about 3 feet high and had tiny flowers and the taller flowers grew normally but again with tiny flowers! Even Roses produced only small flowers! The vegetables fared no better as the local insects had a field day with them so we gave up on the imported seeds and tried the local varieties which grew no problem but unfortunately when ours were ripe for the picking so was the harvest of everyone else in the area so the bottom fell out of the market and there was no profit to be made!

One thing that did grow easily was Aubergine or Egg Plant! Ellie grew a lot of this to feed the workers so we all had Egg Plant fried in egg with breakfast, also for lunch and dinner was an Egg Plant recipe, even at break times many times we had an Egg Plant something or other! After a while of the Egg Plant diet something mysterious happened and many of the mother plants died off, I am sure that the workers contributed to this problem somewhere along the line!

Ellie feeding Young Goat!

Also on our farm we had a mixture of Animals and Birds: Cows, Carabao, Pigs, Goats, Sheep, Rabbits, Turkeys, Geese, Ducks, Chickens, Fighting Cocks, Bantams plus Dogs and Cats, even a pet Crow! These were mostly to make it look more like a working farm and were not really for profit but many of them made very good eating! Unfortunately, once the Hotel business got going we had to remove most of our livestock as the guests did not appreciate being woken up by the squealing of hungry Pigs or the Fighting Cocks going off at any time of day or night! The Geese used to chase people around the car park and Toto the Billy Goat found great amusement by sneaking up behind people and butting them from behind! I will tell you more about the Cambridge Livestock but that’s another story!

Me and Toto, the Butt Butting Billy Goat!

Now we do not attempt any form of farming now as the area was officially changed from Agricultural to Residential and the land we have is now pretty well covered with things like the Hotel, Dive Shop, Pool, Cottages, Car Park while all other areas are covered with Plants and Trees! We do get good Seasonal Fruits as we do have trees and plants which give edible foods like: Mango, Avocado, Jack-Fruit, Papaya, Star Apple, Calabash, Noni, Cami-as both sweet and sour, Malungai, Banana’s, Giobano, Coconuts, Chico, Cashew, Breadfruit, Chillies and of course Aubergine! Please excuse my local spelling of some of these fruits if it is not correct!

All in all we had a good time playing at being farmers but when you have to pay for every aspect then the profits which could be made are cut back considerably but it was fun doing it! I will recommend anyone to try to do a bit of Farming if you have a bit of spare cash but if you have to employ people to do all the work for you then do not expect to make a fortune at it but rest assured, you will have fun!

I am often told that Filipinos do not like to complain and in the main I believe that to be true, except I think the more money you have the more you see more Filipinos complaining, especially in Manila,  but not so much where I live in Mindanao.

This week I was shopping, and as always I ensure my iPod is strapped to my ear and playing ,as  the checkout procedures can be a little challenging, even with the excellent packers at each till working very hard. The problem is mostly with coupons, method of payments and recording of items on the till and on paper. So I accept it and listen to a few tracks until , eventually its my turn.

This week I went to the “Basket only” checkouts, but as I walked forward a very determined lady pushed her trolley in front of me full to the brim, followed behind by two employees carrying cases of drinks. Remember this is “basket only.”

I just gritted my teeth and ignored it, mainly as no one else said anything and I did not want to be the silly foreigner complaining.

Then my landlady walked up with her basket and immediately said to the cashier, why is this happening, this is a basket only checkout and this lady was holding up many other customers, to which a groan of agreement from the queue supported her words. The cashier just put her head down, but the determined customer said she was in a hurry.  As she said this ,another employee came to the checkout carrying tubs of ice cream to be added to this ladies shopping.

I must not get hassled!!!!

I let out a laug , this led to other customers making “tut tut “noises, not sure if it was at me or the determined shopper, and then my landlady said something in Tagalog and moved to another checkout.

The lady behind me, who was well dressed asked me if my landlady was a nice lady. I of course replied yes and she said she loved her attitude, and wish she could be as strong as her and complain. I was surprised as although everyone supported the complaint, nobody else would initiate the complaint.

I explained that my landlady had spent several years abroad, to which my fellow  shopper said “Oh, that explains it.”

Now, why does no one complain? Is it because the assumption is that the person is powerful,aggressive or is t that complaining in the Filipino culture has never moved things forward, the absolute opposite to the west point of view.

What do you think?

Does PLDT know what customer service is?  It would seem that they don’t, based on my recent experience with them.

I earn my living on the Internet.  All of the money that I earn comes through my work on the Internet in one way or another.  Because of that, it is important for me to have a reliable Internet connection.  If I don’t have good Internet, I can’t earn money!

Because of the fact that Internet connectivity is so important to my livelihood, I have multiple Internet accounts.  I recently got a third Internet account, through PLDT, with their MyDSL service.  I had been a MyDSL customer from 2002 until 2008 and had always been very happy with the service, until May of 2008 when they cut off my account three times for no apparent reason.  Every time I would inquire, they would get me hooked back up, but it was a hassle to never know when my service would be off again.  Because of that, I canceled the service at that time.  I got two different Internet connections with different companies when I had the PLDT disconnected.

About a month ago, I decided to give PLDT another try, since I had been happy with them for a number of years, so I got a third connection.  Having backup connections made me feel secure that I would always be online, and if one was interrupted there were still two more backup connections.

Well, the other day, my PLDT connection stopped working again.  I figured that it was just a regular outage and would resume in an hour or two.  By afternoon, though, and still no Internet from PLDT, I was a little concerned, so my wife went to the PLDT office to find out what happened.

The people at PLDT informed my wife that they had disconnected my account.  Hmm.  Why?  My wife assured them that the bill was paid, and we owed nothing on the account.  PLDT informed her that indeed the bill was up to date, and the problem was an account issue with PLDT’s computers!  Because there was a problem in their own computer system, they cut me off!  They even told my wife that there were “a lot of people with the same problem” and they were all very angry about the fact that they had been cut off.

I understand that problems happen, and must be worked out.  Here is what I don’t understand, though.  PLDT is the phone company.  They know my telephone number.  Why didn’t they call me and inform me that they were having a problem and would need to terminate my account (hopefully temporarily)?  Is that not the way customer service is supposed to work?  Inform the customer of what is going on.  But, PLDT, as they always have done, just cut off the account without any notice.  A simple phone call would have been so nice, and as I say, they certainly know my phone number.

I think really nowadays it doesn’t really matter which day you celebrate. A lot of people now celebrate the day that really is best for them. Like us, we have children and adults that passed. We went to the cemetery on the 2nd of November since one of my sibling has something going on in there church on the 1st. Some of my family members went to the graves on the first of November and didn’t come back to visit the next day with us.

I went to GenSan early morning of Monday. I went to the farm first and went to the graves of my grandparents and uncle on my Mom’s side of the family. I didn’t stay there that long because me and my siblings had to go to my parents’ and sister’s grave. We went there at 1pm and stayed for like 5 hours there. We brought some drinks and snacks. My nieces and nephews were there already waiting for us. It was really nice just chatting there and remembering my parents. It was fun seeing some people really having a big party there.

Restaurants like Jollibee, Pizza Hut, Greenwich, Dunkin Donuts and some other good restaurants even put up a temporary place there. It must be a hit for them, they would not come back year after year if its not making good money for them.

There’s even a layman (from Catholic church) who will pray (lead prayer) with the family there. I am not sure how much they are charging though. I didn’t ask my sister about it. I saw a lot of families asking those layman to pray with them in the graves. The cemetery place really caters now to the need of the people there.  I saw lots of police securing the place inside the cemetery and outside which is nice. Also there were ambulances and red cross volunteers there. That’s why people stayed there overnight. I think the maintenance people were not too enthusiastic about cleaning the big mess that was left behind by the people. I saw people just throw away their garbage on the ground. Don’t even look for the garbage can to properly disposed of it. Oh well, pretty normal here.

Some mausoleum owners there even built room for sleeping. They really had big parties there. Those mausoleums are really costly. Some are even like over a million pesos just for the land. It was just fun for us watching the people there having party. Some even brought hammocks and slept on that. Really, in all honesty its really good that people of all ages showed respect to the love ones who passed on ahead of us.

It doesn’t really matter if your rich or poor for as long as you honor your love one on that day, that’s good enough already.  My siblings just wished I brought my kids. It would be something for them to experience for the first time. Hopefully next year they can go and see what really the events for.

Yes, I guess we have been here for about three and a half months – time for an update on what could and did happen.   There have been dry, sunny days as well as typhoon-induced windy and rainy days.  There have been good days, great days, and days better left to history alone.  

I’ll highlight the better-known (and reported) incidents.  They are, however, just the tip of this tropical iceberg called Live in the Philippines, Up North.

-:-

HEADLINE:  Katulong – Lost and Found!

As you may know, the katulong who had taken care of our house in our absence, greeted us when we arrived, and helped us unpack is no longer in our employ.  She left us for that “higher calling” of love and marriage, and appears to be getting along well in that endeavor.  After what felt like an eternity of searching, we employed a new, part-time katulong.

An Ilocano proverb fits our situation pretty well:  “Ti napíli makapíli ti kuggangí.”  [He who is choosy often picks the worst.]

So far, so good:  our new katulong is learning the ins and outs of the job and of our expectations.  Sure, as with all new employees, there have been a few hiccups.  We solved those with improved communications, explaining the job’s requirements and limits.  You can’t do well if you don’t know what it is you are to do! 

Progress was positive, then what I believe was the inevitable happened.  You see, our katulong is a fisherman’s wife and has lived in poor fishing sitios and puroks all her life.  Not only was she learning how to keep house for us, she was learning how to keep house, period.  (It’s the often-observed result of a culturally pleasing affirmative answer whenever most pinoys/pinays are asked if they can do something.  “Can you do the work of a katulong?”  “Oh, yes!”)  She now says that we “may not be seeing her for a little while.”  (Translation:  “I give up; I’m quitting!”)

So, it will be back to “search mode” for baket ko (asawa ko) [my wife].  She still has some prospects lined up, and I’m still partial to fried Spam & rice, so things will work out.  (A little cuter this time, honey!)

-:-

HEADLINE:  “The ‘BRO” & Internet Connectivity

Another search, this one a little more adventurous, resulted in putting us “on-line” and connecting us with the world via the Internet.  We sought out, found and obtained “broadband” service through SMART Bro.  Though fate stymied my further search for the “Share It” router and its 2Mbyte service, I remain happy with what service I have.  After all, I have “The ‘BRO’s” word that this higher speed service, which has yet to make its way to the smaller municipalities of outlying provinces, will be available next year.  In addition, I’m sure I could say that my current service is faster than “dial-up” if I had landline telephone service for comparison.

Sure, as with all new systems, there have been a few hiccups.  (I’m getting a sense of déjà vu – seems I’ve seen that somewhere before.)  Ever since the seven-day brown-out that accompanied and followed the show-stopping, three-time appearance of Typhoon Peping in early October, my connectivity has been spotty at best.  (Okay, Paul, enough with all of those hyphenated-words . . . now stop that!)  Service finally came to a halt some nights ago.  A call on the SMART Bro Hot Line resulted in the scheduling of a visit by a crack SMART Bro Tech Team on Saturday, same week.  (The little truck appeared at noon.  Manolito, Mo-Mo and Jackie-Boy had returned and they repaired a bad connection to the feed-cable inside the antenna unit.  THANK YOU, SMART Bro.) Coincidently, the LBC courier showed up the day before the “halt” with the SMART Bro bill that is due in two days’ time.  Do I detect an adventure (”turn over the money and will give you back your service”) story here somewhere?

-:-

HEADLINE:  Rainy Season Nixes Movement

Wet weather continues to keep us close to home though, as reported here, we managed to venture out a couple of times.  This past week has been a little drier than most.  What that really means is that the rains start a little later in the day.  Planning trips or outings that will take longer than half a day is not yet possible, as, by the time you know the weather will hold for the day, there isn’t much time left in the day for the outing.

Sure, as with all . . . (insert your favorite “hiccup” déjà vu line here).  A few outings started out dry but ended up with our damp turn around for home.  There are plenty of dry days ahead of us, so those trips and outings (and their resulting articles and reports) will be on the back burner for the not so dry now.

-:-

HEADLINE:  Wee Hour Wee Visitors

It appears that we had another visit from the “small people,” as our nephew refers to them.  I’ll refrain from saying the name “Aeta,” as I’ve since learned that they don’t really enjoy that label (ditto for “Negritos” or “Pugot”).  For lack of their proper tribal name, then, I’ll borrow on our nephew’s diplomacy and refer to them as “small people,” too.  The chronicler for this visit was our Auntie, the mother of the nephew who related the first visit.  Auntie was more forthcoming and timely in her report.

This episode involved only two small individuals for whom all of the neighborhood dogs barked as before (déjà vu for two?).  One of the two peered in through the gate while the other sat and enjoyed a smoke (Auntie believes it was a hand-rolled cigarette, or something of that nature, as this person’s hands were a bit busy prior to the smoke).  They stayed around for the duration of the latter’s moment of pleasure, only to hasten off again when they detected Auntie watchfully eying them.  She described them as short, stout, very dark almost black, very curly short hair, wearing shirts, shorts and slippers, and being very fleet of foot.  Having a longer look at the “small people” than her son had previously, Auntie was able to provide more detail in her descriptions of everything she witnessed.

Where was your humble columnist during this episode, you ask?  As before, here was a chance for a nocturnal, cultural adventure, AND I SLEPT RIGHT THROUGH IT!  Baket ko (Asawa ko) [My wife] now makes sure that any dog barking at night is answered by my sleepy-eyed gaze and investigation.

-:-

HEADLINE:  Three Strikes & You’re Out!

I guess this is the major story of our first three months.  Typhoon Peping took three good strikes at us, and then was out to sea for good.  It was very similar to my going through the same typhoon three times in five day’s time while stationed in Okinawa during the early seventies.  (What is it with all of this déjà vu stuff, anyway?  Am I repeating unlearnt history?)

My “Fascination with Rice” took a new turn.  The beautiful rice crop that was in the paddies took it kind of tough during those three passes.  Early estimated reports of damage were high, but farmers are replacing those estimates with lower ones.  There were three or four different plantings of the rice crop, with the most damage suffered by the youngest crop (last planted).  Its “flowering” is doubtful and it will most likely end up as just straw.

The first planted crop was close to harvest time, so it suffered “field loss” damage – some of the grains were blown off the plant, leaving others still attached a little weaker and prone to drop off “in the field.”  The result will be fewer grains harvested and marketed.

Damage to crops planted between the first and last is extremely hard to compute.  All crops planted were a hybrid version formulated to withstand excess water and storms.  Though some of these crops were “laid down” by the high winds, signs of resurrection are hopeful.  The worries here are just how long will standing water remain in the fields, will the rice grains fill out properly, will disease or pests infect the crop, etc.

No one will really know the total damage until after the final harvest.  Prices at the market for harvested, un-milled rice may go up a little and help offset the losses a little, but profit may still be a big squeeze for the farmers, not to mention the effects of rice availability, etc.

Personally, my “banana crop” loss is approximately 75%.  I lost one entire fruiting tree and half of the fruit of another.  The remaining fruit on the latter is yet to approach harvest time, so who knows what could happen.  The three typhoon passes also eliminated 100% of the eggplant that was almost ready for harvest.  Three of four malunggay trees snapped in half with most of the remaining leaves being lost to the wind as well (good thing we harvested leaves before the storm).  I still have five calamansi fruits on one bush, and a second bush is trying to recover from storm damage.

(Note:  At the time I am drafting this acticle, Typhoon Lupit [Ramil] is threatening to finish up the damage started by Peping, and throw in some of its own for good measure.  We can only hope it decides to wend its way north an miss The Philippines all together.   We’ll find out later this week just what are Lupit’s (Ramil’s) intentions.  You have to love living here and put up with its storms, or else leave.

Further update:  After snaking around the Philippine Sea for a week, it appears that Lupit had made an abrupt turn to the ENE, lost some of its power – being downgraded to Tropical Storm – and is headed for Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands.  For this storm, waiting seems to be its worst aspect.  While six international weather services have amended their projections for Lupit to coincide with its current movements, they still warn that “the snake” could turn for us again as well as intensify prior to visiting.  That won’t happen as Lupit was last seen skirting up the coast of Japan, having lost a lot of its intensity and dispersing in cooler, northern sea waters as a low pressure area. 

Harvesting rice has become very hard work.  The fields are still flooded from all the rains, the rice plants are all soaked and heavily laden with moisture; and the cutting, carrying, threshing, etc. is more back-breaking than ever.  Reminds me of shovelling “wet” snow is winters past.

Oh yes:  Lupit hasn’t affected the remaining banana crop.  For the “Bananaphiles” out there, eight hands remain, each averaging between 14-16 fingers.)

-:-

That’s the UPDATE from Up North.  All in all, I make a poor farmer and a merely average resident.  I just hope my article writing is a little better.

I have been a student of history for as long as I can remember and any time that I can cross that with my other passion, cooking then we have a winner.  For some time now I have been wondering about my favourite dish here in the Philippines, Adobo.

It seems more or less to be a national dish but everyone has their own way of making it.  Where my fascination lies is in the history of this humble dish.  For a long time I really wondered if it was truly a Philippine dish or something that made it’s way over during the Spanish Colonial years.  So I dug down, talked to some people and discovered some interesting things.

Adobo

Adobo originated hundreds of years ago as a way of preserving pork for long periods of time.  Basically around 3 kilos or more of fatty pork were placed in an earthen jar and simmered over a low fire with salt, a little water and coconut vinegar.  After 3 hours of cooking most of the fat has rendered out and the Adobo is placed into a glass jar and sealed.  The fat rises to the top and creates a seal which will keep the pork from spoiling for allegedly up to 6 months.  The French have a similar dish called pork confit and it serves the same purpose, to preserve meat without refrigeration.  Sometime around the 1700’s Bay leaves, garlic and peppercorns were introduced into the country and made their way into Adobo.  It wasn’t until the late 1800’s when toyo or soy sauce was brought into the country and Adobo transformed from a simmered dish into the quick cooking dish we are familiar with today.  Well I just had to try my hand at making some of the historical stuff, so starting with 1 kilo of pork belly I cut it into cubes and added it to a pot with 1/4 c water, 1/8 c salt, 1 T peppercorns, 3 bay leaves and 6 whole cloves of garlic, peeled.  Simmer for 15 minutes then add 1/2 c Coconut Vinegar (Sukang Tuba), reduce heat to low and simmer very slowly for 2 1/2 – 3 hours.  The smell alone while it was cooking was divine and by the time it was done the meat had taken on a nice brown color and was melt in your mouth tender.  I don’t think my wife was too thrilled with it but I put the leftovers in a mason jar and left it on the kitchen table overnight.  The next day the flavors had melded together and I was in love with the taste.  It was the best pork I have had while living here.  If I would change anything the next time I make it, it would be to add some cayenne pepper.  My wife and I have really gotten into eating spicy food lately,  and well at least cayenne is healthier than MSG.

In the USA, and probably most of the western world, when you borrow money, make payments for money owed and such, there is a “credit reporting agency” that keeps track of your habits.  If you are a person who pays your bills late, that is noted, and can be checked on by potential creditors for a number of years down the road.  Then again, if you pay on time, or pay more than what is due, that is also noted in your records, and it shows potential creditors that you have the potential to be very responsible with debts.

In short, in the USA and other countries, it is very easy for a company to check on your payment habits, and decide if you are the type of person whom they wish to extend a loan to.  If you have a good record with borrowing and repaying money, there is a good chance that you will get additional loans.

Credit Reporting in the Philippines - It doesn't exist!

Last week, I got an e-mail from somebody that has to do with Credit Reporting Agencies.  It’s an issue that I know about and have dealt with before.  Here is a slightly edited version (I don’t want to give the personal information of the person who inquired) of the e-mail I received:

Hi there, I am realtor in Canada and am helping a client who
moved from the Philippines to find a home. The banks are asking for a
credit bureau from the Philippines, but it seems that this is a
difficult task. What is the best way to show a credit bureau or
credit information for the past year. Where would my client request
this information and how difficult is it to get?

Well, you see… the problem this person is facing is that there is no such thing as a credit reporting agency, or credit bureau in the Philippines!  Yes, you read that right, they don’t have a way of tracking you if you don’t pay your bills, or no way of seeing your credit worthiness if you do pay your bills!

Additionally, if you have great credit in the States, there is no way that you can “transfer” that credit here, so that people know that you are honorable in paying debts that you know.  Again, if you leave the States owing a bunch of money, that also cannot get onto your “record” here, because basically there is no record!  Now, let me say, if you owe enough money there, and try to skip out on it by moving to the Philippines, that could still lead to trouble for you, because if you owe enough money, they might just track you down, and still come after you here (if the amount owed is enough to justify the cost of doing that).

Now, even though there is no credit reporting here, there still is one way that bad (or good) credit could affect you here.  That is if you are dealing with the same company, or a sister company.  For example, Smart Telecommunications is a subsidiary of PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone).  If you owe Smart a bunch of money, and skip out on it… when you go apply for a landline at PLDT, they will likely have a record of the fact that you owe money to Smart, and they will catch you that way.  But, if you owe Globe Telecom (another cell phone provider), PLDT would have no way of knowing, because they are two different companies.

OK, so if there is no credit reporting, how do you get a loan?  How do companies decide if you are worthy of the responsibility?  How do they know that they won’t be ripped off?  What they do is that they look at your employment, your salary, and they check if you have borrowed from them before, and how you were on the payments.  You will need to supply other data too, such as a statement from the Police or NBI (National Bureau of Investigation), a clearance from the Barangay Captain (sort of the “mayor” of the neighborhood where you live) that will attest what kind of record you have.  Do you have criminal convictions?  Are you currently wanted?  The Barangay will attest to your character – are you an honest person, or not?  Do you cause trouble in the neighborhood?  If so, it might indicate that you are not the type of person that they want to do business with.

Another factor is that if you are a foreigner, it will be very, very difficult to get any kind of loans here.  If your wife is from here, and has an established record here, she could probably get the loan, but not you.  If you are an immigrant, and have been here for a few years, that is when you might be able to start getting some small credit deals, and thus building a record, but only with the company in question.  For example, if you get a credit card at a certain bank, and show a good record of credit worthiness, then after a year or two, perhaps they will allow you to upgrade to a better card with a higher limit.  Your beginning card, though, even though it is a credit card (as opposed to a debit card) will likely require you to keep a deposit at that bank, as collateral for the credit.  The payments will not be drawn against the deposit, the deposit is just there in case you skip town and owe money.

I suspect that in coming years, but possibly many years down the road, credit reporting and record keeping will make it’s way to the Philippines.  I mean, it is inevitable for it to happen.  Companies can minimize the monetary risk they take with people if such reporting is done, and is centralized, as it is in other countries.  We’ll have to wait and see if it happens!

I told the driver to park and I entered the hotel to find the visiting ID card people. Four Minutes later I’m seated in front of a computer station and the young lady from the States is proving to the computer that I am indeed me. Three minutes later I process a new and updated Military ID card and had time to chat. The reason that I was there, I discovered, was because retirees in the P.I. seem to live an extraordinary long time, Spanish American War Veterans were still collecting their checks. And for some reason the Government had serious doubts that this could be true. I told them I felt it was more than likely true.

Spanish-American War Vets - Are they still alive in the Philippines?

You see in 1997 I pulled into Manila Harbor onboard the USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO-99) and noticed while boarding the liberty boat, that there was not one Pinoy from the ship with gray hair, whereas, the day before there was. This could only bring me to the conclusion that the waters of Manila Bay must contain magical properties, or at best be the true Fountain of Youth!

I told the young lady a story on how this longevity occurs. A Local Bank in Olongapo City in the 1970’s told the Filipina wife, she could not pick up her husband’s money without his thumb print. He had lost both legs to diabetes after retiring from a base Civil Service job, and she had to load him into the car once a month and take him to the bank. After he passed she never notified the U.S. Government and still went to the Bank every month to collect his (her?) money, but now she only had to take his frozen thumb in a cooler.

The young ID card lady from Washington seemed to view that with much humor, and went to explain my theory of Philippine Longevity to her fellow workers, who stopped working and started laughing. I departed, thinking, “What do they know?” I choose to live here, and am kinda’ glad I do, as I want to live forever also!

Here’s how we travel, with the approximate costs, time, advantages, and disadvantages. I hope this is helpful to expats when deciding how to travel within the country… The relative advantages, disadvantages, and costs are roughly comparable throughout most of the country, regardless of  your destination. Note that we normally rent a car up North when I travel (Rebecca never learned how to drive)… At the end, I’ll detail how to do that in the province (No Avis or Hertz in most small provincial towns).

By bus:

Juanito asleep on seat of the Florida Lines Deluxe bus

Cost: Florida Lines, Cubao or Sampaloc to Tuguegarao, Aparri, or Ballesteros.

400 pesos each way, per person for Ordinary (Small seats, no aircon, many stops)… 12 hours to Tuguegarao, 16 to Aparri or Ballesteros.

650 pesos each way, per person for Deluxe (Same as Ordinary, but with padded seats, aircon, and video… Planned stops every 2-3 hours)… Same time as Ordinary.

850 pesos each way, per person, for Super Deluxe (Wide seats, aircon, videon, one stop or nonstop)… 9 hours to Tuguegarao. No Service to Aparri or Ballesteros. (FX, Jeepney, or drive from there, about 3 hours).

950 pesos each way, per person, for Sleeper (very comfortable Lie-flat seats, nonstop, only one bus per day to each origin station). 8-9 hours to Tuguegarao. No service to Aparri or Ballesteros. (FX, Jeepney, or drive from there, about 3 hours).

Rebecca has been taking the bus back and forth to Abulug from the time she was an infant. Note that there is normally no central bus station in Philippine towns (There used to be a Central terminal in Cubao during the Marcos years, but that has long since disappeared)… Each bus company operates its’own stations along their allotted routes. The locations of the station you depart from depend on where you are going and which bus company owns the route. For Tuguegarao, it is Florida Lines and Victory Lines, primarily, with a few smaller bus companies also. Once you ride a route, you learn where the stops are located for meals, though I must caution tender Western stomachs to be really careful when eating along bus routes. We always take the busses that leave in the early evening, travelling overnight, and arriving very early AM in Tuguegarao (or late AM in Ballesteros).

Advantages:

1. Virtually unlimited amounts of baggage (Generally, for two people, 3 bags / boxes per person… Over that, you buy a “seat” for your cargo, either officially, or unofficially by making a deal with the driver or conductor.) This is an advantage for us since there are times we may be carrying several hundred kg of “stuff” with us to the province.

2. Very cheap way to travel.

3. Ironically, very relaxing. The stops break up the trip, and, if travelling in daytime, a beautiful route with nice scenery.

Disadvantages:

1. It is a bloody long ride, and very hard day… Lose a day up and a day back. Except the sleeper bus, it can be difficult to get much sleep.

2. The bus drivers tend to set the aircon cold enough to hang meat in the bus (or freeze all testicular function).

3. We have had things stolen from baggage on the bus (While we were asleep… an Ipod and Cell Phone)… Keep valuables close at hand.

Driving:

Becky's Sister in Law, Emma, by the Sentra. She's easily car sick. After cleaning up barf five or six times, I've told her "Bonamine, or you clean the mess!"

Cost: I pay 2,000 pesos per day, plus petrol (one tank up and one tank back) for a Nissan Sentra (Private owner… Hertz and Avis average 3,500, but you are insured and not responsible for any damage… an issue. Read my earlier article about driving at night). (Average 10,000 pesos for short, up and back, trips… 3 days minimum).

Time: 14 hours minimum, each way (I made it once 13.5 hours, but in bad traffic, it also took 19 hours once.)

Advantages:

1. No need to rent a vehicle up North.

2. Lots of room for baggage and cargo.

3. Ability to stop whenever we want.

4. No problem on Juanito’s car seat.

Disadvantages:

1. Long, hard, drive, with few hotels along the way to sleep over. After going up and back, I need time to recover.

2. Dangerous at night.

3. More expensive.

Flying:

Arrival at Tuguegarao

Tuguegarao Airport

Very limited flight schedules

Trying to get some work done during the inevitable 3-hour delay

Cost: Despite the low fares advertised, it averages out at 5,000 pesos per person each way after taxes, departure fees, and taxi to the airport.

Time: 2 hours screwing around at the airport, 45 minutes flight time. Tuguegarao flights are ALWAYS late(Every time I’ve flown there, sometimes by up to 3 hours. Still need to get to Abulug after landing, so + 3 hours). Minimum time 6 hours.

Advantages:

1. Despite delays, quick and less stressful. Still have 1/2 day in Abulug on travel days.

2. Relatively comfortable.

3. Flights depart from NAIA Terminal 3… New and stress free.

Disadvantages:

1. Tight baggage weight / pc restrictions (This is a BIG issue with us). Restrictions are more strict on domestic flights.

2. Limited number of flights (One each daily, Air Philippines and Cebu Pacific). The return flight turns around immediately, and each airline departs near the same time, so impossible to fly up and back the same day (You need minimum of one night overnight in Tuguegarao).

3. Most expensive way to travel.

4. Still need to get from Tuguegarao. (Going by FX averages 500 pesos for Filipinos each way, 1,000 pesos for Kanos each way…Unless you are a highly skilled negotiator… The drivers are all in Kahoots, so the rates are fairly standard, including Kano pricing).

Car Rental in Tuguegarao or Aparri:

As I mentioned above, I tend to rent a car when I go up to Abulug. There are a number of reasons behind this, not least of which is that since Rebecca’s mother does not own a car, there is usually some hauling and other tasks that need to be done up on the farm. Additionally, we tend to go to Tuguegarao and then shop, do other chores, before heading up to Abulug. A vehicle makes these tasks much, much easier. As I mentioned, there aren’t many car rental options outside of Manila, Cebu, Davao, and GenSan, so how do we rent a vehicle? Well, the answer is that we rent from Becky’s large, extended family. In Tuguegarao, we rent a Mitsubishi Pajero from an in-law at 2,500 pesos per day, plus petrol. In Aparri, we rent an FX from Rebecca’s uncle for 2,000 pesos per day, plus petrol. Filling the tank on each of these vehicles usually costs between 2,500 and 3,000 pesos for diesel. We are 100% responsible for any damage, regardless of fault (Even a flat tire… I had to get one fixed… You don’t just call Avis!)… Something to keep in mind before making these types of arrangements. Also, when you rent from Hertz or a company, the daily rate clock is 24 hours from when you pick up the car… Expect in these types of arrangements to pay an extra day over the time you rent, because they always count sun-up to sundown as a full “day” . Most Jeepneys and FXs can also be rented by the day, with driver, averaging 2,000 pesos for an FX or 1,000 pesos for a jeepney… The drivers wait for the busses and flights to arrive and congregate there at those times. You just need to ask around at the airport or bus depot… SOMEONE will rent to you there.

Hopefully, you found this article helpful before heading out into the sticks… Again, costs and times are relative, but having travelled in all three regions of the Philippines, they are relatively consistent in my experience.

There must have been twenty thousand people there! For one it was the deadline to register to vote here in the Philippines and two Halloween here is celebrated in grand fashion at the mall! That’s right the tradition as I learned was to create, not buy, but make yourself a costume and depending on your age enter a costume judging contest or enjoy many festivities that includes a marching band, the local “jollibee” parading through the grocery store and all of the department stores on all the other levels of the mall.

Halloween!

And let me tell you I was so impressed at the talent and thought in making these costumes. It kind of makes sense to me that unlike the US, they do not go door to door here, I mean the difference you will find in just about any neighborhood here is one house will have crystal chandeliers and the next door home have woven palm frawns for a front door, so it makes sense to celebrate Halloween either privately with a home party or at the local mall. The local paper here has a front page story in it that quotes the Catholic church as saying that Halloween is becoming a commercial holiday, made me think that as long as I can remember, I can never remember thinking that Halloween as a religious holiday, but it is, it All Hallows Day, but more holidayesqe here and celebrated by more here is the following days November 1 and November 2, November 1 being All Saints Day and November 2 being All Souls Day, at this time the departed are remembered and even as I shopped in the grocery store I was surprised to find there was no chicken for sale, see it was already sold to people making the pilgrimage to the cemetery to make a offering to the departed and actually have a picnic at the cemetery!

This has its deepest roots in the traditions of the Catholic religion of which I am a member but never did I celebrate this holy tradition in my home country, that’s why I had to kind of chuckle when reading about how the Church was angry about the holiday being commercialized. In my opinion Christmas takes that top honor all over the world.

I really love exploring the differences of living here in the Philippines and I hope you do or will too soon!

Mabuhay !