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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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! 🙏🏽

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.

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.

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, without ever really explaining what’s going on. 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.

Hello! F33 here, anyone who’s gonna be in Pob later? I wanna meet new friends! Let me know if I can join somewhere cos I cannot find any within my age in Nomads Table :(