The Philippines: Ever live there or work there recently? Have questions

[scho63]

One of my former Chinese business colleagues from Hong Kong has reconnected with me as he is in the US for 2 weeks on business. He owns some properties in Philly and was in NYC/Philly for a week and now in LA/SFO for another 10 days.

We did business together from 1994-1997 in China/Hong Kong and the US. It was a good relationship and I was treated great and did very well.

Eerily his 29 yr old daughter committed on April 22nd and it was a shock, so all these recent suicides have resonated with me.

He has some partners and they are doing a LOT of investing in the Philippines around Manila, specifically Makati City. He is wondering if I would be interested to work together again and potentially be based over there to help sell Philippines development properties for him as a partner to all his contacts in China/Hong Kong/Canada and the US. My housing would be free and I would be paid a salary.

I've been to Asia but never the Philippines. It is a very English speaking country, good ties with US and they are making a HUGE push to catch up to China.

My question is there anyone here who in the last 5-7 years spent time in the Philippines, specifically around Manilla?

What can you share?
Business?
Quality of life?
Costs?
Food?
Weather?

It would be a RADICAL change from Scottsdale AZ but the opportunity is very intriguing compared to the very slow start I'm having here with a tech company.

Any REAL feedback greatly appreciated.......

[JohnnyV13]

Makati is the financial district of the Philippines. That means the best high speed net connections in the country are going to be available in that area.

You'll easily be able to connect to nfl.com's subscription service for games. Getting live games might be a bit more of a pain in the ass outside of the hotels. Again, it's freaking Makati, so you should be able to get Sunday ticket on your cable package in your housing. I'm guessing they'll put you up in a condo in a Makati high rise rather than in a stand alone house.

[FlaChief58]

Went TDY there once. Make sure you do a package check before you commit to anything. You're welcome

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by JohnnyV13

Scho63, I am in a company that has a call center in the Philippines. All of the founders, including me, are either immigrants from the Philippines or are a child of a Philippine immigrant.

As for costs, the effective buying power of a dollar is approximately 7 to 1, while the exchange rate is a soft peg that hovers around 50 pesos to the dollar. However, this isn’t uniform. Cars and electronics might cost even more in the Philippines due to lack of a strong distribution channels, while food, clothes, housing, and personal services are dirt cheap. If you like seafood, Manila is heaven. You can get vast quantifies of fresh seafood at dirt cheap prices.

Makati is an elite area. It’s pretty much the Wall Street of the Philippines and is part of Metro Manila. You will be able to get around quite easily speaking English. Not only are street signs in English, store sale signs are in English. College courses are taught in English, so most managers and educated professionals will be fluent. In fact, in business meetings, you will see people speaking Tagalog before the meeting, when the meeting starts they switch to English, and after the meeting they switch back to Tagalog. English is the language of business and official documents are recorded in BOTH English and Tagalog versions. Given the wealth of Makati, almost everyone will speak American. Heck, all kinds of businessmen will want to exchange cards with u bc everyone wants to make American contacts.

You can hire a full time maid for less than $50 a week, who will cook and clean your place. If you're getting housing paid for, it should also come with at least one (preferrably two) maids. The maids will shop for you too. However, it’s very close to the equator, so it’s hot and humid as hell. December is the best time to go as it is relatively cool. But it’s soon followed by monsoon season which can have very heavy rain.

Makati is on the main island of Luzon, and there are beautiful beaches all over the Philippines (7,000 islands). It’s a heavily catholic country with around 89% identifying themselves that way. Thus, it’s a place where abortion is illegal and the Catholic church is still fighting any public programs to teach use of birth control. BE VERY CAREFUL if you decide to travel between islands. Inter-island ferries can be really risky. There are way too frequent accidents where these things sink and thousands of people die. Typically, this occurs when people bribe the low level attendants to get aboard, and they get overloaded.

The place is endemically corrupt. Locals will typically bribe police to get out of tickets, or will bribe the tax man. You will often have to pay bribes to low level regulators to just do their jobs. One typical scam is for customs officials to plant a bullet in your baggage, and you have to pay a bribe to avoid charges for attempting to bring in contraband. This trick is often pulled on Filipino guest workers returning from well paid jobs abroad.

However, your Chinese friend should have all of that figured out if he’s regularly doing business there. For example, my first cousin runs 14 casinos for the company that holds the gaming license in the Philippines. He has concierges meet any high roller at the airport to help them get through customs (I don't know, but I presume this includes a standing bribe to customs officials).

However, American tourists and American businessmen are pretty much immune from customs scams bc the government doesn’t tolerate it.

As for your business, the Philippines doesn’t allow foreign ownership of real property. However, you can own condos where the overall property is held by a Philippine citizen. To do the business you’re talking about, you will need a local (Filipino) partner. The law might have changed, that was the rule cited to me by the sales staff of a condominium in Tagaytay (a nice area in the mountains with an average daily temperature of 67 degrees year round).

Manila is a cosmopolitan city with all the amenities available (presuming u have $$$), but the Philippines is a shockingly poor country. It has roughly the same population as Mexico with only 1/3 the gdp. Though Manila does a pretty good job of hiding them from view while driving along the main thoroughfares, the poor live in shantytowns.

Traffic in metro Manila is horrendous. Though, if you’ve been to Hong Kong it won’t be anything you don’t expect. Heck, Hong Kong traffic is worse than Manila. However, if I were to live there, I would just take cabs, "tricycles" (a form of hired local transport that are motorcycles with a covered sidecar), or hire a local driver. I wouldn't want to deal with that crazy traffic, plus you'd be a target for a lawsuit if you got in an accident.

Now this is a strong ass post.

[MahiMike]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

My biggest factor would be my ability to watch the chiefs and the beginning of the PMII era. I'd want to know if satellite is available . If I couldn't watch I'd have to turn the offer down.

I lived in Austria pre internet. My mom taped the games on VHS and shipped them to me. My VCR cost $1000 cause it played both American and European systems. What we do as fans man...

[mcaj22]

What kind of properties does your friend own in Philly?

Commercial or Residential?

Is he one of those huge investors putting in huge 130 unit condos. Real Estate is booming in the up and coming areas right now (albeit still some of the biggest drug ridden places in the country)

I was always curious where they came from. New buildings popping up every week.

[Skyy God]

Buy lots of drugs!!

[scho63]

Originally Posted by mcaj22

What kind of properties does your friend own in Philly?

Commercial or Residential?

Is he one of those huge investors putting in huge 130 unit condos. Real Estate is booming in the up and coming areas right now (albeit still some of the biggest drug ridden places in the country)

I was always curious where they came from. New buildings popping up every week.

Residential buy and rent of low income properties. I'm not a fan.

There are better opportunities for all these guys that have pooled money together.

I may be in Philly soon to take a look. I know it's a real hot market but not sure where it is on the beginning-middle-end stage of things.

I heard Bill Ackman of Pershing just made a homerun in Philly and he's using it to rebuy more Pershing shares.

I have a long-time connection to Brandywine Realty Trust

[scho63]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

My biggest factor would be my ability to watch the chiefs and the beginning of the PMII era. I'd want to know if satellite is available . If I couldn't watch I'd have to turn the offer down.

Nowadays if you have a high speed connection, a good computer with malware and Adblock plus you can watch any sporting event live.

I've watched so many Chiefs games for free on my computer it's not funny. I also watch movies for free via international streams.

[ghak99]

Enjoyed the very contrasting posts to my limited knowledge.

I know a couple "brides" from there. Not sure exact locations, but they both describe third world day to day activities and severe poverty and corruption. They've mentioned the sinking ferry thing as well.

Very good people.

[Stewie]

I work with an engineer that spent the past two years getting our aerospace manufacturing up to speed in the Philippines. He took his family with him (wife, two sons). They lived a good life on cheap dollars. He was a hero to them. He's back now, with a hot Philippine as his new girlfriend.

[Rain Man]

It's less expensive in the Philippines according to this unverified website: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...y2=Philippines

If you go, would you ship me some Pepsi?

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

My brother has vacationed there many times. He always tells me if you want to bring home a wife that will give you a massage every night, do your laundry daily, clean your house, cook all your meals, plant and take care of a garden and wake you up with a blow job every morning this is where they will be found.

[suzzer99]

My friend was disappointed when his whooore in Panama didn't want to hang out for the weekend. I guess the Philippines spoiled him.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It's less expensive in the Philippines according to this unverified website: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...y2=Philippines

If you go, would you ship me some Pepsi?

Sure, send me your address and $2,500. I'll make sure you get plenty!

Ironically Numbeo is quoted in my PPT presentation I've done for my guys.

[PunkinDrublic]

I was in Moalboal in the Visayas in February for a week. I flew into Cebu City from Hong Kong. I loved it. Lots of cool old buildings leftover from the Spanish-American war. If you want to scuba dive and see some things from World War II it’s a great spot. Some of the friendliest and kindest people I’ve ever met in my travels and yeah the women love Americans. It can get pretty dangerous and Dutertes a piece of shit but it’s still a great country to visit. You can see why so many people visit and never want to come back.