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LIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES
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Current exchange rate is 50.020 10/07/06 If you are interested in telling your story, please
E-mail it to me at the below email.
rocketman5047@yahoo.com and I will include it on this web site.
Don't forget to send pictures. |
Life in the
Philippines is good, it's one of the few places where you can pretty
much live
like a king, read on to find out how. But first a little background on
myself. I 'm a retired United States Air Force Photographer. I
remained in the Air Force for 20 years serving in Germany, Thailand,
and visiting many other countries, before retiring from the
military service in 1987. I was only 41 years old, so began a new
career in computers. My computer background is in Computer Operations.
I also did some consulting work on the IBM AS/400 Mid range Systems. Some of my many jobs and duties were,
Lead Operator, PC Technician, Control Language Programming, PTF
Maintenance, Operating
System Upgrades, Novel Netware 4.1 Administrator Setup Personal
Computers to access the Networks,
Monitor network activity, Shutdown, and Restart Network Servers, Setup
Windows Networks, Extensive knowledge of PC Hardware, Install and
Repair Personal Computers, Purchase Software and Hardware, Windows
Instructor. I also worked as a consultant subcontracted under IBM to
perform System Upgrades on IBM AS/400s One of these was with Levi
Strouss & Co. of Dallas Texas. I also did consulting work for Decker
Food out of Dallas Texas. In 2000 I became a manager of a computer
repairs section of my company reporting directly to a VP. In the
United States Air Force I was stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base from
1985 to 1987, I was a Technical and Scientific Photographer at this
facility.
Later I became the Non Commissioned Officer-In-Charge of the
Air Force Geophysics Photography Laboratory from 1985 to 1987, that's
the top enlisted position
in the unit for a facility. And before that I was the Non Commissioned
Officer-in-Charge of the Air Force Geophysics Unit Training from 1983
to 1985, so that was two top enlisted jobs before retiring. Ok enough
about my background. By the way Air Force life for me was probably the
best thing that ever happened to me, besides moving to the Philippines
in 2004. After retiring from the military, I went on to study
computers in a technical school, and ended up working with the IBM
AS/400 midrange system as a consultant for twelve more years. I was
also a Computer Operations Manager at two companies and a programmer,
although I did not do a lot of programming. I did designed one program
for paging workers by selecting names from a list and typing in a
message to be sent. This was in RPG and Control Language. I also did a
lot of machine level programming on the AS/400 designing my own
operations program, used for backup and recovery on the AS/400. I have
background in Microsoft Windows operating systems, programming in a
variety of languages like RPG, Cobol, Fortran,
and Basic, Assembly and Machine Language. I have other skills in
Networks, Disaster Recovery and web site design. And I am also a
musician, I have been playing the Bass Guitar now for more than thirty
years. In late 2003 I attended a crash course at the University of
Texas at Arlington completing 44 hours of Web Site Developer
Certificate Program. Some of the courses I took were: Photoshop 7
Level 1 and 2, Javascript Programming, Perl Programming, Dreamweaver 3
level 1 and 2, Active Server Pages (ASP) Level 2 and Level 2, Flash 5
Level 1 and 2,, Unix Introduction and Intermediate, and Web Site
Administration. The photos below are of my petite wife, this makes her
look younger than she actually is. Marianne weighs in at 76lbs. is 5
feet tall and 22 years old.
I
moved to the Philippines in April of 2004 after my wife of twenty five
years, died of a massive brain hemorrhage. I do not do well living
alone, I need that human kind of contact, so I began looking for
friendship almost immediately. I met my wife online while I was still
living in Texas. I took a trip to Cebu in April of 2004 to meet
Marianne, and ended up marrying her. She is originally from the nearby
island of Negros but spent all her childhood right here in Cebu City.
We were married by September of that same year (2004). I have been
here about two years now and really enjoy it. I go back to Texas about
once a year for a two week stay to visit my two grown kids living in
my Texas house. Our relationship is excellent hardly an argument. I
have a wonderful caring and loving wife who I love very much and who
truly loves me in return. I believe my wife is in the 1 % of rare
women who truly love their American husbands and are not in it for the
money. You can usually tell the way a person acts if its for real or
not. The way she demands a kiss even if I am hard at work on my
computer or
just
the way she talks to you. She has such a great personality, hardly
ever a harsh word comes from her, I have never met anyone so kind and
loving as she is. My wife is in the process of immigrating to the US
and we expect the paperwork to be completed by October or November of
this year. I expect we will be in the US for only two or three years
before moving back to the Philippines again. (maybe, time will tell)
This move is mostly to work and increase the bank accounts and for us
to be able to travel (Marianne) and meet the relatives. Just received
our interview appointment, it is for October 30th, at 8:30AM this
means we will be traveling to the US this November. Our plan is to buy
a place in Cebu City and settle there. We may sell the Bogo house, rent it or
simply keep it for a second home. It can also serve as a hotel for
visiting friends or relatives who come to the Philippines to visit. To
see more family photos and photos of the baby, check out our home page
Living
in the Philippines is also quite cheap. This makes it a good choice
for retirement living, even if you are living on a fixed income. Here
are some examples: Medical and dental are very cheap here: Three days
in a private hospital to give birth to a baby via natural means will
cost you approximately 10,000.00 Pesos or $192.00 USD. One person had
a bill of $20,000.00 for dental work in the US, he came here and got it
all done for only about $700.00. You can get a crown done here in a
modern, clean Dental office, for about $100.00 USD, Have your teeth
cleaned for around $7.00 USD. Five days at Sta. Fe Beach Resort will
cost you approximately $200.00. (Photo of my Bogo home with 50' porch
on two levels) and this includes three meals a day in their exquisite
restaurant. Rooms rent for about $15.00 to $20.00 a night in most
hotels. A three room apartment will cost you about $32.00 a month. A
100cc Honda Motorcycle will cost your roughly $850.00, great for
getting around the local area. You can purchase a vehicle for as low
as 175,000 Pesos or roughly $3,000.00 USD. If you are living on a
fixed income this is one of the best place to retire. I could live
here on my military pension alone. I have a thriving internet
business
called "United States Online Shopping Malls", this is an affiliate
sales site and an Internet Cafe called the "Cool Zone" located in the
town of Bogo Philippines, which I half own with another guy who is
married to my wife's sister. The Internet Cafe makes about 24,000.00
Pesos in revenue per month after splitting it in half, well it buys
the groceries and maybe the electric bill. However if all my
businesses fail, I could still survive on my pension alone which is
about $1,000.00 USD a month, it's tight but possible. I have a friend,
a retired police officer living here on his pension of only $700.00
USD a month, and he does just fine. If you are interested in
relocating here send me an email, I would like to hear from you and
possibly I can help you get started. So I say, "Why struggle when you
could be living like a king". I am just an average middle class
American the most I made in the US was (Photo of Downtown Cebu City)
just over $50,000 a year when I worked however that came to an abrupt
halt in 2002. I was laid off of my computer job that year as were many
others during those days. The company I worked for had their stock go
from $65.00 all the way to $1.29, they laid
off
400 employees the first year of which I was one. Fortunately for me I
had money in the bank as was able to survive the US without a job. I
now have a three bedroom house with two tiled porches on two levels ,
plenty of marble on those porches also. I have a security guard on
payroll along with two live-in maids and a gardener. I'm not trying to
brag here just showing you the difference in living standards I can
maintain. It's not all good here there is some bad but considering
everything else you get it's not really that bad. On average we get
about one to two power outages a month usually only lasting an hour or
so. Then one power outage every month that is an all day affair, some
downtime to do maintenance on the power systems. Water too
occasionally is shut off, usually for some kind of repairs. I keep a
tank full of water just in case, when I am ready for my shower I find
the water is off. This kind of living is usually confined to the very
rich, however it is fairly common over here. You CAN really live like
a king here, in your own castle. I have a 2005 4x4 all wheel drive
Gold colored Ford Escape costing $25,000.00, I purchased it new in
Cebu City a year ago. It is fun to drive, handles like a sports car on
the curves. I can take the sharpest turns at 60 to 80 kilometers per
hour and it clings to the road without a sway, I also have two Honda
motorcycles and a Tricycle, which is a motorcycle with a large sidecar
attached, largely used in the Philippines as a taxi, 50 pesos a ride
on average. We use ours mostly for supply runs and occasionally to
bring someone up from town. I also have a little green Suzuki van
costing $3,000.00 this one has a little water cooled 660cc three
cylinder engine.
Where's
the best place to live? My choice is Cebu City or anywhere on the
island of Cebu. This area is relative free from earthquakes even
though there have been earthquakes on nearby islands. There are also
relatively few landslides and the ones that have occurred where in the
mountain passes, on the road to Cebu City. I haven't seen a land slide
the whole time I've been here. Also typhoons usually miss us passing north of here over Manila. Cebu City and Manila like most US
cities do have some crime, however smaller towns like Bogo are
relatively crime free, If there is any I never hear about it. I've been here two years and never seen anything except
an auto accident and maybe someone getting drunk. (Our Suzuki 660cc
Multivan 13" wheels) Cebu is pretty much free of tsunami also as it is
surrounded by other large land masses on all sides. The soil is hard
and rocky and does not turn to mud that easily.
(The vehicle on the left is a Suzuki 660cc three
cylinder 
