An Englishman's View of Living in Cebu
THE GOOD - THE BAD - AND THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY
By Ron Garrard, cebufineproperties.com
A purely personal point of view
I became acquainted with the Philippines back in the 80's whilst living and working in Hong Kong. My job entailed frequent visits the Philippine Islands and I moved to this country in 1992. I spent 4 happy years and even married here, in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu, to my Filipino wife, Susan.
Sue and I returned to the UK in 1996 where I worked until 2003. After seven
years we decided to come back to the Philippines to settle. We sold our
small terraced house in Grays, Essex when the property market was on a high
and made a handsome profit. The excess enabled us to have our very large
dream-house built in Cebu. I'm now a resident and together with my wife
Susan manage cebufineproperties.com
The majority of Filipinos are warm hearted people, very friendly, hard working and always seem to be smiling. Your Pound, Dollar, Euro will go a lot further; living here is much cheaper than the western world.
We have huge department stores selling everything from groceries to cars, with a multitude of restaurants. Clothing, even branded clothes are much more reasonable. Certain imported goods are roughly the same price as in Europe, especially food items. Transportation is very cheap; the flag-down for a taxi is currently P30 or roughly 30 British pence as opposed to several pounds for a black-cab in London.
Modern, air-conditioned cinemas showing the latest international movies will set you back just over a pound or 2 US$'s.
Restaurants are in abundance, French, Italian, Thai, Korean etc., etc. My favorite is a Thai eating house where a substantial meal for 4 can cost 8 - 10 pounds, including drinks.
The weather: there seems to be three seasons, hot, hotter and hot and wet. If you like a very warm climate, then this is the place for you, where you can sport an all year round tan, free of charge. This is after all the tropics, so expect a banana or mango tree growing in your garden with palm trees and exotic flora.
If you are thinking of retiring to the Philippines you could live reasonable well on GBP 600, US$1200 (assuming you own your house or are paying a modest rental) per month which would be almost impossible in Europe and the States. There's no Council tax, no television license, no stealth taxes, but there are taxes in this country including property taxes etc.
Perhaps you enjoy the occasional tipple, and why not? A one liter bottle of a proprietary gin or vodka is at least 6 times cheaper than in the UK, an imported (USA) litre bottle of Burgundy or Chablis are about half the UK price. An acceptable lager, by the case will cost under half price compared to the UK.
Electricity charges in the Philippines are the second highest in Asia after
Japan and perhaps a little more than the UK. There is not a main line gas
supply with most people cooking with LPG, and as there is obviously no need
of gas central heating, my gas consumption is just a few pounds a month.
Cars are much cheaper here and I'd recommend buying a new vehicle if your
budget will permit. Top Japanese models are the most popular by far, some
of which are locally produced and retain their value. Car insurance reduces
every year, unlike Europe, because of the reducing value of the car. There
are no no-claims bonuses; my third years cover (fully comprehensive) was
well under half of what I would expect to pay in England.
Gasoline and diesel have increased considerably due to spiraling world oil prices as in all other countries, but here it is not taxed so highly as in Europe. The price of a liter of top-grade petrol is, at the time of writing, almost 3 times cheaper than the UK.
Labour in this country is also very cheap with many households affording
maids, drivers, nannies, gardeners and houseboys.
Road accidents in this country quite high caused by sheer bad, undisciplined drivers, excessive speed and dilapidated un-roadworthy vehicles. The most common form of transport for the masses is the Jeepney, a throw back from World War II, which resembles the American jeep of that era; in fact some look as if they actually took part in the war. These vehicles carry up to 20 passengers and are not the most comfortable mode of transport.
Tricycles, motor bikes with large enclosed sidecars, which can carry 6 or more people with a top speed of 20kmh. Both types of transport cause constant traffic jams because of setting down and picking up passengers in all the wrong places.
The slowest vehicle for getting around in the rural areas is the pedicab, a bicycle with sidecar with a top speed of 7 km/h if you have a young peddler or 5 km/h if he's getting on a bit and there is no need for safety belts.
There are many motorcyclists and whilst the wearing of crash helmets is compulsory, not all riders do. Some hang their helmet on the handlebars or slung over their shoulders or even wear them back-to-front like baseball caps. Some riders wear totally unsuitable plastic helmets. It's not unusual to see as many as 6 people riding a solo motorbike.
Driving at night is literally a nightmare with many vehicles being unlit or having multicolored lights on the back and front, but mostly they just don't have lights.
Never be in a rush in the Philippines, there's no point, it's a very laid-back country where everything comes to those who wait, eventually. It's very rare to see people in a hurry except drivers of course, who appear to be always answering emergency calls. The word for urgent here would seem to be, mañana, after all, it was once a Spanish colony.
Dogs. There are too many of them, both street and house dogs and unfortunately some Filipinos treat their dogs badly. Before moving to our new house my wife and I lived in a small subdivision where some dogs were chained up 24/7, never exercised and who never saw the sun. The nonstop barking dog is the bane of my life where Filipinos are simply immune to the sound.
Poverty/Unemployment. Sadly, more than 40% of the population live in abject poverty with some 15% who are unemployed. Some families have to survive on less than US$2 per day. Most crime is caused by poverty, people having to steal to eat. Some resort to taking drugs to make life seem better, using crime to feed their habits.
Population. There is a great debate at the moment with one side declaring
the country is over populated whilst the other side disagrees. It's all
about birth control which is on a hiding to nothing; simply because the
country is predominately Roman Catholic (95%) and the church being very
strong is vehemently opposed to any form of artificial birth control. The
uneducated poor people have up to 10 children, whilst the educated and better
off, have 2 or 3. Because of unemployment families move to the big cities
in search of work, thus making these cities over populated. Unlike many
other counties, the majority of the population is young
In a word, CORRUPTION. The main stumbling block of this third world archipelago is simply corruption. From the highest officials in the land to the lowly policeman. Don't get me wrong, not every one is corrupt just the many greedy people who see no wrong in asking for grease money, thus ensuring this country remains third world.
These are just my personal thoughts aimed at providing some information for the prospective settler who is looking for some where to live. One of the reasons cebufineproperties.com is successful is that it is different from most other Realtors. Although the company's prime objective is to sell real estate it also goes to great lengths in informing its clients honestly and by offering the best advice. I will answer your questions on moving to the Philippines, offer the best advice in buying a property and, having been there, done that and bought several T shirts, my knowledge is quite extensive. Save money by learning from my many mistakes.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you found it to be of some use and I look forward to hearing from you.
Ron Garrard
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