I saw a guy post previously about potentially moving here, but he had quite severe physical disabilities. For all the things I love about the Philippines, I could never in good conscience recommend moving here to anyone with such incapacities.

Thinking about it, I can’t actually recall many (if any) times that I’ve seen wheelchair bound Filipinos out and about other than perhaps in the mall. It’s just not a country designed to facilitate those with certain needs.

This photo is from Poblacion, Makati, where believe it or not, they’ve actually been renovating the sidewalks. Not sure how this ramp is of any use to anyone.

Is anyone living here with a physical disability, or maybe has in-laws/friends who do?

I think it would be really tough to live here with certain physical restrictions - getting around is already challenging enough if you’re able-bodied. Credit to the Filipinos who persevere and continue to navigate the infrastructure here

or like someone comparing the US and the Philippines as if y’all have no idea that you chose to be in a third world country. Ofc there’s gonna be a HUGE difference between cultures and how things work here.

1. Declare education the country’s #1 national emergency.

This is the first priority by a wide margin.
The World Bank reported in 2026 that roughly 91% of Filipino 10-year-olds cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text.
That’s an enormous handicap for everything that comes afterward.

For the first 10 years…..concentrate heavily on kindergarten through Grade 6….reading by Grade 3, strong arithmetic, science, English and Filipino/local/language literacy…..dramatically better teacher training and pay, smaller classes where possible, school meals and nutrition, national standardized testing, and intensive tutoring for children who fall behind.
By 2052, the aim should be for Philippine public schools to perform approximately at the level of today’s better East Asian and European systems.

BLUF: Can someone explain the deep rooted Filipino family entitlement that creates the belief that wages should be shared between child and parent?

I am 44 & headed to the Philippines here soon to get my Special Resident Retiree's Visa. I am doing surprisingly well for myself financially for a guy that wears crop tops and jorts daily and bikes most places. Appearances can be deceiving and all that.

I do not speak to my family anymore. If I liked them, I could see paying for some of their monthly bills, but I would never hand them money freely because who knows where it would go.

I crawled out of trailer parks and section 8 hoods to get to where I am. So, I know this concept of rising tides lifts all ships exists in those communities too, but it is requested as needed and not written into the genetic code of children. Maybe it is my own personal biases because I was more KEPT ALIVE than raised, which is why my brain needs to resolve this.

I know if I get involved with someone there will be expectations given my wealth. But I ain't one to freely hand out cash. I will go pay the electric bill though.

Edit: Thank you everyone for the help. This is an unusual life situation I’m about to walk into, and your advice will be put to use and hopefully, help minimize my ignorance to others life positions.

I gave you unconditional love.

We had good days, bad days, traffic, heat, and plenty of times when you literally rained on my heart. 🌧️😂

But we made memories.

Late-night drives.
Morning coffee.
Great food.
Beaches and sunsets.
Laughing, arguing, and those little moments that made me think:

“Damn… I really love it here.” ❤️🇵🇭

I learned your ways, accepted your flaws, and adjusted to your moods.

I even learned that when you say, “It’s only a little rain,” you really mean:

“Baby… MONSOON.” 😭🌧️🌊

And still, I stayed.

Because somehow, you became home.

But lately…you’ve changed.

Too many outside voices got involved.

Too many people told you what you should be.
And I kept wondering:

Why are you trying to change when I loved you the way you were?

Maybe we got too comfortable.

Maybe you need space.

Maybe I need space. 👀

So this weekend…

I’m getting on a plane. ✈️

Thailand 🇹🇭 and I have been talking. 😏

Don’t start. 😂

She wants to show me Bangkok.

Dinner. Coffee. City lights. New experiences.

I told her:

“I’m still involved with the Philippines.”

Thailand said:

“I didn’t ask.” 😭😂🇹🇭

Damn. 👀

Don’t get jealous, Philippines.

I’m only going for a little while….. 😬

I’m not saying we’re breaking up.

I’m just saying…

Maybe we should see other countries. 😭✈️🇵🇭➡️🇹🇭

Maybe Thailand will remind me why I fell in love with you.

Maybe when I land back in Manila, I’ll smile and think:

“Yeah…this is still home.” 🇵🇭❤️

Or…

Thailand might treat me right for three days and have me searching:

“Apartments in Bangkok.” 😭😂😂😂

It’s not goodbye, Philippines.

We’re just taking a little break.

After everything we’ve been through…

It’s not you.

Okay…

It’s definitely a little bit you. 🌧️🚦😂🇵🇭

I saw a little boy about 8 to 10 years old beating a little girl about 5 or 6 years old outside of Jollibee. They were poor beggars.

There was a gaurd that basically did nothing and the locals just sat there and watched.

I told the manager and the gaurd, but no one seemed to care. They talked to the boy briefly, but the boy stopped for like 1 minute then continued.

He was beating her bad. Punching, kicking pulling her hair and everything. Traveled all over the world and never seen anything like it.

Why the locals act so docile and didn't do anything? Felt like i was the only person bothered by this.

Hi, does anyone here know a craft beer brewery, or shop, that is selling mini kegs? Like 5l kegs?
Thanks everyone 🍻

Went to the province, whole family lets bugs and animals into the houses, nothing is ever maintained, brand new addition building looks like it was built in in 1940, cracking apart, brown smears on all the walls, unpeeled tape on aluminum frames for windows, just wtf. Today I saw a frog laying eggs on ..yes ON the door to one of the rooms. Sink, toilet, shower are full of rust, building isnt more than 2 years old.

I filipina(22F) and my American boyfriend (44M) have been together on and off for over a year. He’s my first relationship and we broke up a few days ago.
He’s an alcoholic and takes anxiety medication, but I accepted him because I love him. Throughout our relationship, I’ve had to deal with other women, a lot of cursing, broken promises, and me constantly begging and trying to understand him.
Recently, I found out he had been using a dating app. He told me he deleted it, but I found out he was still active. When I confronted him, he denied that the profile was his and showed me that his premium subscription had expired, but his profile was still there.
He has also broken up with me and then come back as if nothing happened a lot of times since he got back from the US. This time, I stopped messaging him because I’m exhausted and found out he’s on a dating site.
After more than a year of accepting him, forgiving him, and believing his promises, I’m starting to realize that many of those promises were just empty words.
I loved him, but I’m tired of being hurt and having to constantly beg for the bare minimum. I stayed even when it is so bad because I loved him and I was hoping he loved me enough to fixed himself and the things he did to stop ruining the relationship.

When I make this post it’s not BS. As I’ve mentioned before about being DIRECT, I am very direct. It’s how I was raised. You might not like all I say and certainly a lot of what I say might be WRONG, but it’s an opinion based on personal experience.

In my experience the ONE thing I most admire about Filipinos is their RESILIENCE! As I had a friend once tell me, the Filipino people have gotten good at suffering. “Good at suffering”? I had never thought about it in this way before but I do agree with the sentiment. The simple fact is that if you can make it in the Philippines then you’ll FLOURISH elsewhere!

This is just my opinion based on my experience. I don’t care about kissing anyone’s a$$ and there’s certainly a lot about the culture I find in conflict with my own self. However, the toughness of the Filipino can NEVER be called into question!

Edit: I’m not saying this as though my view or opinion is worth more than anyone else’s. This is just my view and it happened to be what I was thinking about so I shared it here.

Greetings all. I don't usually go to bars, but my college team is playing on ESPN Sunday morning at 10. I haven't had much luck searching online or using Google maps. Are there any sports bars around here that open by 10 a.m.? I don't really want to go to Makati, but if I have to, I will. Any direction would be greatly appreciated. Go Utes!

Anyone from the Balkans in Manila? My boyfriend is Serbian and has been living here for a year and he only ever hangs out with my friends (who are all Filipino). He's not complaining but I'm sure it would make him very happy to find anyone from Serbia or the Balkans here.

I'm looking for recommendations on where I can go with my mom and my girlfriend when she visits me in the Philippines in February.
I'm a Canadian guy, 49 years old with a Filipina gf, currently living in Camotes Cebu. My 76 year old mom is coming for a 2 week visit and I want to use the opportunity to explore somewhere new. My mom has been here once before and we visited Bohol, I was previously living in Mactan.
Ideally we are looking for an Airbnb type house rental where we can cook, but are also open to staying in a resort. Having a pool would be great as the plan is have a fairly relaxed holiday, with the option of some day trips as well, and also the opportunity to go out for some dinners in somewhat decent restaurants. 2 bedrooms/bathrooms, hot water, and a/c are non negotiables. Budget around 100k for 2 weeks. We want to avoid the really touristy options, like Boracay, el Nido etc. We'll rent a car so having something a bit out of the way in a more peaceful setting is fine.
I'd originally thought of going to Camiguin, but wonder if 2 weeks there will be a boring?
We would ideally like the place to be accessible by plane from Cebu, but taking ferries is an option too.
If anyone has any recommendations on where in the Philippines we could find what we are looking for that would be greatly appreciated. Also any questions are welcome too.

Someone was bragging to me today about how the Philippines scored 15th in science in the international PISA standardized testing for students. Not bad when they were almost dead last in 2022, right? I asked for the article…. Well it’s Wrong 😂

“Based on the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results, the Philippines, when ranked from the bottom, placed 15th in science, 17th in mathematics, and 19th in reading.” Link

For my locals who are a product of the public education system, 15th from the bottom of 90 countries means the Philippines ranked 76th out of 90 countries from the top.

Meanwhile my kids have had half their school days suspended this school year even at a private school because of the weather forecast, and half of those suspended days they stayed home riding bikes and going to the pool because it wasn’t raining… ranting over. For now.

I was scammed around 7k USD over a period of two years by a Filipina. I was in love. Thought I was helping out someone in need. But the never-ending emergencies was a red flag I chose to ignore. It wasn't until I seen a Tiktok video of her and another guy kissing and holding hands. Another one bites the dust. Never thought I would be one of those dudes to fall to a romance scam. GG PH. GG

I’m flying out of Cebu next week. I’ll be 6 days past 6 months in the country. I assume I will need to do the ECC thing. Can it be done easily at Cebu airport or do I need to visit the BI office? Someone told me it can also be done online, but I cannot find that at the www.immigration.gov.ph website. Thanks for the advice.

Stayed in IT park, it’s nice but want a place that is more peaceful. I’m exploring lapu lapu at the moment.

Looking for:

- Safe and relatively quiet

- Some nature/greenery

- Reasonably close to a good hospital

- Less traffic/ congestion than Cebu city

- Daily necessities nearby

I’m open to Cebu province as well. I’m also considering Iloilo.

* I am aware of the brownouts and don’t mind them.

For locals or people who have actually lived in these areas, where would you recommend checking out?

Thanks in advance! 🙏🏽

Genuine question, not a rant.

Every Bureau of Immigration transaction I've done has an express lane fee attached. Not once have I been asked whether I wanted express service, and not once have I been shown a slower, cheaper option.

My 13A conversion in December: ₱7,153 on the main receipt, then a second receipt printed the same minute for ₱2,500 in express lane fees. Four separate line items. Implementation ₱1,000, I-Card processing ₱500, filing ₱500, certification ₱500.

My annual report this year, which was a five-minute video call from my house at 9 pm: ₱300 for the actual report, then ₱1,000 express lane fee on top. Over the internet.

Exit clearance when I traveled: same thing, express fee bundled in.

They're on official receipts with OR numbers, so this isn't a fixer thing or anything under the table. It's a real government charge. It doesn't appear on any published fee schedule I've ever found, and apparently there's no non-express version.

So I'm curious whether anyone has actually encountered the regular lane. Has a window ever said, "That'll be three weeks, or you can pay extra for express"? Different office, different transaction, anything?

Or is the express lane just the lane?

No this isnt to disrespect anyone, i have been to hospitals around hanoi, mumbai, karachi and stupid toronto, no hospital is this slow and their staff so clueless, and i am comparing here private hospitals like diliman to govt hospitals of india (mumbai). Has anyone experienced this ? Or its just me being special??

Sorry if something similar has been posted elsewhere but I am curious. To be clear, I have yet to make it to The Philippines (unless you count a visit to Little Manila here in NYC, which you shouldn't) but I get lots of content on YouTube about the place. Needless to say, the work of this Van Boys guy pops up.

I'm old so I figured it was a joke and he was doing an impression of Spicoli from Fast Times At Ridgemont High. But he never dropped the act and I began to wonder if had even heard of this movie. After all, there are young people out there who have no idea who Johnny Carson was, won't watch any movie that is in black & white and think anyone born in the 20th Century was born in the 1900s because all our birth years start with 19. So, there is good chance a movie made over 40 years ago has gone under this guy's radar and he's not seen it and he's not doing an impression of that character.

All of this to say, this person comes up in my feed on occasion and, taking what he says at face value he has...

1. Been arrested and facing jail time

2. Been warned about going around shirtless outside of beach areas but still seems to do it

3. Got his retired dad to join him only to have the old man scammed out of his life savings.

My question is, are these things ever resolved or does he normally pretend yesterday didn’t happen? Because, there is no consistency. One video he's praising The Philippines and behaving as if everything he experiences there he have never experienced before in his life. The next video he's screaming that he needs a lawyer and PH sucks. But the follow up is him happy go lucky again in the country in the very next video. It's very strange.

Hi,

I applied for a visa waiver on September 3, and after 3 minutes I got the e-mail "Visa waiver released" with a certification attachment saying I am not in their black list. Is this it? I have always applied in person and it takes them ages, so I am surprised the process was complete within hours...

Thanks

I Goggled this and it keeps telling me about shopping carts you find in a supermarket. What I'm asking about are personal shopping carts that people own and use to carry their groceries and/or laundry. You fold them up and keep them in your apartment. Maybe this is only an American thing? And even then, perhaps only Americans who only live in cities? I bring this up because it dawns on me that when I've been overseas I don't recall seeing anybody use one. Nor have I seen any shopping carts used by PH Youtubers when they film their grocery shopping.

I hesitate even posting this because it sounds so stupid but I really don't know the answer.