PhilFAQS

Recently I’ve had some very good discussions on my weekly column for Bob Martin’s Living i8n the Philippines magazine column, “North Wind” regarding jobs.  I decided to move the discussion over here as judging from the comments I got there is quite a bit of interest in this subject.

In particular, today, I want to talk about OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) jobs for both my Filipino readers and my Western readers who may find themselves in the position of being asked for advice or even direct help in getting relatives or family friends on their way to a job overseas.

First of all, let me add a caution or two that some of you may not be aware of.  There are a lot of companies here in the Philippines who seem, in my opinion, to be taking advantage of their fellow Filipinos in a big way.  Yes, I agree this is a sad state of affairs, and yes the government should be doing something to fix this problem (in fairness, many government officials are engaged in correcting such issues), it is terrible that people should take advantage of others, and on and on.  Agree to all of this.

But today is today, not tomorrow (tomorrow, by the way, never comes, so stop waiting for it) and we are in the real world, not the ideal one.  A person with a healthy skepticism of false claims and a grounding in simple facts should be able to prevent themselves from getting cheated on these deals … here are some simple suggestions:

• The number one red flag are firms that demand big payments from potential job applicants up front.  Legitimate firms filling job vacancies overseas are well paid for each successful “body’ they recruit, there is no reason they should be extracting ridiculous fees from the “bodies” themselves.  You do not want to get yourself into debt before you even see a dollar or rial or yen of earnings.  I know there are “square shooter” firms out there. here’s a sample from a firm advertising heavily in the Philip0ines right now as we speak:

We are a NO-FEE Charging Entity.

We do not extract placement fees, processing fees, nor salary deductions from all our candidates. We also ensure our world-renowned clients are the best providers of career employment for the Filipino. In return, we choose only the best qualified candidates for these jobs for our esteemed clientele worldwide.

• If the firm you are thinking of doing business with does not have a similar policy, ask them why they don’t?  In the end, I can’t make the decision for you but I firmly believe it is possible for an honest worker to get a ob honestly.
• Every Filipino citizen who complies with Filipino law has the right to a passport and necessary travel documents from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (equivalent in principle to the US State Department).  Not long ago a relation, a young man with little money and no ‘favored family’ status went to the DFA to get a passport urgently needed so he could go for a job interview in another country.  He paid off no one, just filled up the forms, supplied the required documents and paid the fees (including a legal ‘express lane fee’), and got his passport again just as an American citizen would do to get a US passport in a hurry.  There’s a deep seated belief held by many Filipinos’ that they somehow are not ‘entitled” to their own government’s citizen services.  In my experience, this is just not so.  “Fixers” and other third-party agents are usually unnecessary and at times can even be counter-productive.
• Follow the law.  Sounds simple, but if you dig into the many annual cases of abuse of Filipino workers overseas you will frequently find that the worker left the country illegally on a tourist visa, failed to use a government licensed employment agency or availed of some other method to ‘sneak past’ the government established safeguards.  It’s particularly sad to me that thousands of underage girls are somehow “spirited’ out of the country every year in hopes of work as a domestic helper.  Many of these young women find themselves in virtually slave labor situations where the employers mistreat them and cheat them on their pay.  Since they are illegal in one or more aspects they can’t usually get the protection normally offered by the law.  A disturbingly large percentage wind up in even more dire straights … locked up against their will in a strange land, saddled with massive illegal debts claimed by the creeps who tricked them into these so called “jobs” and forced to literally “whore” their way out of debt.  Bottom line:  this is virtually does not happen to legally processed and properly registered and regulated OFW’s  Do Not Cut Corners, or allow a friend or relative to get in this situation.  The law exists to safeguard the worker, ‘sneaking out’ is very seldom worth it.

Here’s just one example I found today of what appears to be a legitimate firm adverting heavily in the Manila Bulletin.  Notice that they are proud of not charging employee fees, they have jobs in many countries, and in the jobs I saw to day for both KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Canada, they had a number of skilled and semi skilled jobs with no nonsensical “must be single, attractive and under 25 requirements and no educational inflation such as requiring a master’s degree to drive a truck.  I furnish the link strictly for informational purposes … I have no connection to this company nor can I vouch for them personally, but merely as an illustration that honest, straightforward routes to OFW employment exists.  Caveat emptor.

Many of you reading this today are likely as mystified as me, watching grown men with Harvard MBA’s pour a trillion dollars down a rat hole and then looking stunned when the ‘rat’ still wants more.  Paulson, in particular, looks like a clueless small boy who convinced his not-to-bright grandmother to buy him a trillion dollar Super Man cape, leaped off the garage roof with it and has fallen ‘splat’ right on his face.  “But the package said it would really make me fly ….”

Welcome to the realities they seemingly didn’t teach you in business school …spend more than you make and the house of cards will tumble.  He should have bought a clue rather than that cape.

If you are planning for retirement, especially retirement in the Philippines, and a lot of your capital is tied up in 401K stock plans and a house that you have watched go down, down down in value, I can safely guess you have a trace of depression and hopelessness in your mind as you read.

So I thought I’d throw out a couple proven ways you can act, right now, this minute, that will improve your outlook and help keep your Philippine dream in mind.  No investment, no Harvard Business School mumbo jumbo, and a 100% iron-clad assurance you can profit. Dave’s Suggestions?  Easy.

Spend less. Recently after I wrote an update on what things cost here in the Philippines I was totally blown away by how little we have spent in the past two years, compared with the money we pissed away thought we had to spend in the last few years in the USA.  Yes, part of the savings are because things are cheaper here … some things.  But the majority of the savings are due to what we could spend, but don’t.  You can profit from this too, even if you are still back there planning to move or even if you have no plans to move here, ever.  You really, really need (as opposed to want) that NetFlix account, a cell phone for every family member, that gym membership you haven’t used in a month …. the list goes on.

Save More. If your mental response to this idea includes the word “can’t” then slap yourself upside the head, get a cup of coffee and re-think.  You can save more, if you decide you want to control your life and provide yourself an end-game, rather than waiting for someone to tell you what is left in the great government give away pot for little old you.  You know when I was a boy the US had a poor rate of personal savings compared to many of our world neighbors.  It has gone downhill steadily ever since.  Today, it is one of the lowest.  Any idea what nation has the highest rate of personal savings?  China.  Yes, the people who likely made the chair you are sitting on and the monitor you are reading these words on.  The country where people stand in line to work in tedious factory jobs for $100 USD per month.  Yep.  those folks have a higher per capita saving rate than any other nation on earth.  Think there is any correlation?  I have no MBA, but I think there is.  Start now, this week, to put money in a savings account.  Even if it’s $10 a week.  Just do it, you certainly can if you want to take action rather then be acted upon.

Here’s one area virtually every one of you can work on … since almost everyone reading this has a car … or two, or three or more.

Get Rid of One or More:  This is one of the most obvious paths to your move to the Philippines .. or paying of your credit cards or sending your daughter to college or whatever future expenditure is weighing heavy on your mind right this minute.  Simplistic?  You bet.  Doable?  In the vast majority of American homes it is.  Might be less convenient, might require some re-scheduling but think of the thousands and thousands of dollars per year than monster in the driveway is sucking out of your life and make the hard decisions.

Slow Down: Time goes by so fast there are probably people reading this post who don’t remember the USA’s “grand experiment” … the 55 mph National Speed Limit.  I drove several round trips from Colorado to Florida during those years and believe me, I don’t want to see a return to that nightmare.  But I know a lot about real gas mileage … installing and monitoring thousands of GPS tracking units in commercial fleets will give you insights that Earl down at the local bar doesn’t have.  In general you can bank on this.  From 55 on up to 75 or 80 mph you pay about 1% per mile per gallon penalty per mile per hour.  So drive at the speed that suits your income.  You be the judge.

Stay Home: “Is this trip necessary?,” is a government slogan much older than “Drive 55”.  How many times a week to you drive someplace only to drive to that same place yet again in a day or two?  How many time sin the past month have you consciously postponed or combined trips?  You’ll find that the absolute best gas savings you can make is to leave the darned thing parked.  Again this sounds simplistic, but the number of people who still use their car as if gas was $0.59 a gallon is simply amazing.  Adjust you thoughts to fit reality.

Walk: If you have a pair of legs that work, use them.  And chauffeuring the kids to this, that and the other thing?  Are you sure it is needed, or is it expected.  You know what surprises me almost every day when I see something on American TV?  How FAT Americans are.  Guess what.  You don’t need a gym membership.  Every mile you walk is money not spent and fat not gained.  And teach your kids to walk.  Do you waste gas driving ‘round and ‘round the mall parking lot trying to capture that elusive space near the entrance?  And then look at yourself in the mirror and see more of you than you want to.  Do you see a cause and effect at work here?

No Left Turns: Huh?  What are you talking about?  Just as simple as the words I wrote.  In the course of a year you make goodness knows how many left turns as you go about your daily life.  think there is no difference between turning right and turning left?  read this:

UPS, the delivery people, decided to re-structure the delivery routes taken by drivers to eliminate as many left turns as possible. Now that may sound weird, but how long have you sat in a left turn lane waiting for oncoming traffic to pass, and how many times have you dreaded crossing into oncoming traffic?

The results have been dramatic. UPS says its 95,000 vehicles shaved nearly 30 million miles off its deliveries in 2007, saving the cost of 3 million gallons of gasoline and reducing truck emissions by 32,000 metric tons.  More on how No Left Turns can lead to the Philippines here.

Translating those big numbers into real-world terms means UPS saved about $125 per vehicle in their first full year of not turning left.  If they can, you can too.  Not to mention one very important factor they didn’t try to quantify with dollars.  Left turns are immensely more dangerous than right turns.  By doing the ‘no left turn’ thing  Brown saved themselves hundreds if not thousands of accidents … and accidents are always expensive … up to and including the ultimate price.  Read this for another intelligent and heartwarming line of thought behind my, at first, bizarre advice:

… As I said, he (the author’s dad) was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she (the author’s mom) was 88 and still driving, he said to me, “Do you want to know the secret of a long life?” “I guess so,” I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

“No left turns,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“No left turns,” he repeated. “Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic. As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn.”  Read more here and be prepared for a lump in your throat.

OK, this will put more than the promised $125 in your pocket if you adopt just a few of my suggestions.  I know some may feel it isn’t directly on topic but I’ve been reading the news and feelings a little anxious and depressed.  So I thought, what better way to cure worry and depression than to get busy and do something about the situation.  Action, even tiny actions, mean much more than you think.

A man whom I admire a lot once had the courage to address the American people with these words, “… we choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard …” and people loved him for it. And you know what?  We did what he asked and we felt (justly) proud of ourselves for doing it.  In these troubled times we have no leader with enough cojones to ask you to do what’s hard … just to beg for handouts … so, even though I couldn’t make a pimple on the butt of a real leader, I’ll ask you to do what needs to be done, even if it’s hard.  As we often said on the ranch, “Just git ‘er done”.

First, let me thanks those of you have been sending me questions in support of this weekly feature.  It’s a big, big help to me to know what things people want to know about regarding the Philippines … be sure to send me yours, no matter how trivial you may feel it is.  I know from watching some of the searches for information here that there are many things I have glossed over in the past, thinking they are simple, yet they are not so easily understood … or my answers are not, more accurately.  There’s an old saying that asserts, “The only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask” and I feel that’s pretty much true.

You can reach me directly via my secure, spam-free contact page or call me on 1-719-966-4295 or text me on 0919-231-5625.  This week’s offering is a composite answer to a number of questions I’ve received.

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What’s Available for Health Insurance in the Philippines

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First Americans and visitors from many other developed countries have got to understand a few basic Philippine health care industry facts.  By and large, there is no way to live here and operate as many do in the US … plunking a Blue Cross or other health insurance carrier card on the cahier’s counter and in many cases having all their medical needs (or perhaps less a known co-pay) being taken care of.  To my knowledge, that will not happen here.  Health care is essentially a cash and a pay as you go industry.  There are insurance plans, though and here are some of the options:

PhilHealth: This is a nation-wide, partially government funded plan which covers all Filipinos from cradle to grave.  In most cases it covers spouses (Filipino or foreign) and all recognized children.  Sound too good to be true?  Well perhaps in some cases it is, but in my direct experience PhilHealth is a lot more useful than many give it credit for.  There are three main categories of members … employed, whose premiums are paid by their employers, Direct paying … which most eligible readers will fall under, and the Elderly, those over 60, not covered by other plans and with incomes under PhP 1,000 per month.

Phil Health costs PhP 100 pesos per month for ‘self-payers’.  That’s right, about $24 or $26 USD per year and believe it or not, many people search on the phrase “is Phil Health worth it”?  I really don’t know about your budget, but PhP 100 pesos per month is less than I give to charity or lose from holes in my pants pocket.  Is it worth it?  I recon so.  My mother-in-law has used it fro several hospitalizations in the past few years and the payment .. Phil Health’s share … has never been less than PhP 5,000 or PhP 6,000 pesos.  That’s a pretty good rate of return, to my non-numerical brain.

Of course to many Americans the payments Phil Health will make are tiny .. and they are, but as my daddy always said, “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick”.  As with almost all other insurance, though, Phil Health pays in arrears, after a patient files for benefits.  Many hospitals do have a PhilHealth department which may be able to get the reimbursement applied before the final bill is die … otherwise you pay no and collect later.

I strongly recommend Phil health coverage for employees like domestic helpers .. it costs so little and could save you some distinct out of pocket expanses if say, the maid cuts of her thumb.  Those with elderly parents should make sure their mom and dad are enrolled too … it’s free and yet many, many Filipinos think they aren’t eligible and can’t afford it.

So what if you need more in the way of benefits, or aren’t qualified for Phil Health?  One next logical source is commercial health insurance.  I’ll divide this into two sections .. Us or home country insurance and Philippine commercial insurance.

Home Country:  I can really speak only to US commercial insurance here.  Those from other countries need to do their own research before the move.  If you have insurance on your own in the US or commercial plans like Blue Cross that you can carry into retirement, the answer to what that insurance will cover here is dependent upon your individual carrier.  Even “Blue Cross” is just a label, there are literally hundreds of different plans all marketed under the Blue Cross logo.  read you plans documentation and perhaps call them and ask … it’s the only sure way to know.  If you are a federal retiree, as I am, with FEHB coverage, you’ll find there are as many as 6 of the many plans u8nder FEHB that will pay claims no matter where you live.  There are a large number that do not.  Check first.  If you plan covers you, there should never be an issue of amounts of re-imbursement, because medical costs here are very significantly lower than the US.  No matter which plan you use, almost certainly you will pay first and submit for reimbursement later.

Philippine Commercial:  There are many, many commercial health insurance carriers here in the Philippines, even including Philippine Blue Cross.  Here are links to a few others.

http://www.pacificprime.com/countries/philippines/

http://www.sunlife.com.ph/group/profamily.asp

http://www.bcbuddy.com/health.htm

I don’t use any of these plans and I can’t speak to their various levels of value and/or goodness.  An important consideration is, in general these plans are no where near as liberal as US plans for covering pre-existing illnesses and many of them stop insuring folks in the 65 to 75 year old range.  In short, you must check.

US Medicare:  This I add just because it forms the basis of many US citizens retirement health care strategies.  Medicare, by law, does not cover US citizens living outside the US or US possessions.  Thus, you can live in, say, Guam and be covered, but you can not live in the Philippines and be covered.  Especially after age 65 when you will have to accept (and pay) or reject Medicare Part B payments, this can be a big factor.  No easy answers here.

Social Security:  strictly speaking, this is not health insurance, but there are many folks today who are relying on “Social Security Disability payments.  This name is misleading, because there are several categories of disability payments.  Some are 100% payable overseas and some are 100% not payable overseas.  Rather than go into what I think the rules are, go to www,ssa.gov for yourself and research.  I know of a number of US expats here who came with expectations of what they were going to receive and are now very disappointed … or broke.  Social Security retirement benefits, by the way are fully payable here, even direct deposit, and the Philippines has the only Social Security office on foreign soil,  in Manila, with a staff who has impressed me with their level of service.

Former Military and Military retirees:  Again, US forces only.  basically this can be divided into veterans Administration and TRICARE.

US VA benefits:  If you are a US veteran with a service connected disability, you are probably entitled to benefits from the VA office and VA clinic in Manila … contracted care is provided in other areas by the VA.  Pharmacy be3nefits are included, for those qualified as well.  very important on this issue to check for yourself with the VA before assuming you’ll get care.  Relying upon what some other vet may have told you, or what you read on some independent website, including this one, is a recipe for future disappointment.  In the US almost every vet is entitled, here the rules are very strict about the service connection disability.  You may not be entitled to what you are entitled to within the US.  (Side note.  there is not a VA hospital in the Philippines.  there is a free-standing VA clinic.  What I frequently see references to is the large and impressive “Veteran’s Hospital complex in Quezon City.  This is a Philippine government organization which serves Filipino veterans … just to avoid confusion).

TRCARE: This is an insurance plan implemented by the US government to cover active duty and retired military members.  TRICARE comes in several “flavors.  Some are totally free to members, some have fees.  The one applicable to the Philippines is TRICARE Standard.  This is the only TRICARE plan that can be used here until age 65.  After age 65, members must switch to TRICARE For Life (TFL) which requires that the member pay Medicare Part B … even though s/he can’t use Medicare here in the Philippines.  Sounds like the proverbial “Catch 22” and in some ways it is, but better that you know now than later.

OK … my own plan?  I have FEHB coverage but I placed it in suspension … no pay status .. since I am also covered by TRICARWE.  Monthly cost: $0  I have yet to accumulate enough bills to try out TRICARE’s reimbursement system.  Monthly cost so far: $0  My wife and I have Phil Health.  monthly cost ~$2 USD.  Aside from that, plan to live forever … or nearly that long.

Any other questions?

There are two main cataegories of people reading this blog who are interested in Living in the Philippines.

Thos who are not yet retirement age but would probably make the move as soon as they can, if they could find enough income to support themsleves and their family in the Philippines.  And those who are already retired but are worried that their retiement “fixed income” won’t support them comfortably and safely if the make the move.

Here’s an article I wrote on one of my other sites about seniors and retirees making money. real money, online that addresses both these problems … or opportunities, depending on how you chose to look at them:

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Recently I had the pleasure of some emails and phone calls with a lady named Sara Wilson, a free-lance writer earning online.  Hmm, that’s not very unique in the way of news, now is it?

Well let me focus the narrative a little more on our theme, here, being a resource for Seniors and Retirees making Money On Line.  You see, Sara contacted me as part of her research for an article she was writing on assignment to find just what the subject line is here, People over 60 earning On Line.  I’m sure she put a lot of work into the article, I recommend you read it , but it does turn out she didn’t have too much problem finding multiple success stories.  If you are coming up on retirement soon, or you’ve already retired and think that the rest of your life will be spent in wishing and hoping that whomever is president will toss you the bone of 2% COLA increases, then take heart.  It’s not just this 60 plus ‘voice in the wilderness’ writing here with the message, there are plenty other seniors who are empowered in their retirement for as long as they want to be active.

For those who don’t chose to read the full article, I’ll summarize it here, it even opened my eyes to a few things.  Sara’s client, the folks who commissioned the article have a pretty interesting and useful web site that is worth a visit as well.

1. 64 yo Woman earning from AdSense: Many folks have heard of Darren Rowse who first became known for making a six-figure income from blogging.  many more, though, don’t realize that Darren’s famous ProBlogger.net website is not where he earns most of his money.  The ‘star’ of his portfolio are sites that review and give tutorials on digital cameras, exactly as this lady does.  Think AdSense and other Pay Per Click services are dead?  No way.
2. 64 and 62 yo Couple teaching via a Membership site: One eBusiness model many of us don’t pay enough attention to is loosely defined as a membership site.  You offer content or a service that people want and then charge them, typically a monthly fee, for access.  Think no one would pay to ‘belong’ to something you create?  Here’s a couple with paying members from 31 countries that proves they will if you get it right.
3. 64 yo Woman selling on eBay: eBay, I can here some of you saying, that can’t make money.  Well, there are 27 billion dollars a year changing hands there that will prove you wrong.  Selling on eBay is one of the fastest and most reliable ways to start today and see dollars flow into you account in  a week or less.  Here’s a lady making $30K plus per year to prove it.
4. 76 yo Woman Coaches for Profit: 76!  Aren’t you all washed up by then?  Can a 76yo actually make money?  Well the straight answer is, yes.  I loved this example because it showed exactly what I have often preached.  No matter what you original skills, play to your strengths … and it’s easy to convince seniors they will learn better from another senior … $30K plus for this lady proves my theory.
5. 62 and 65 yo Men Selling an Online Service: It’s easy to find a dozen different ways to earn commissions or otherwise profit from the products of other people, but most Internet gurus will tell you, the most successful path is to create and sell you own product.  “I can’t do that” you are saying as you read this.  Well, no doubt theseguys thought that too until they decided to solve a problem that plagued millions of people.  These guys are now making over six figures per year and it’s cute, the “taske away’ I got was their original intenet was to sell ‘conventionally” i.e., “brick and mortar” storefront and all the normal timmings (and overhead).  They started online becuas eit was cheap and quick and now find there was never any need to think about rea-world real estate, investment and hassles.

OK, there you go.  read the article for some more details, visit these folks online to see what they are doing, but most importanly, your take awy is: Do not tell me you can’t make money online.

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Often times I get queries about the advisability of buying a home in the Phlippines now and leaving it sit until retirement comes … as a hedge against inflation and a way to assure you’ll have at least that much of your retirement already in place.

This may work for some people but in general I counsel strongly gainst this idea.  Basiclaly, for three reasons:

1. Poor Investment Vehicle: A single-family home, not producing income, is a poor invetsment.  In fact, it’s a liability, not an asset.  The US has lived in a dream world for 20 years or so with peple making buying decsions in the belief home prices will always go up.  Historically, they don’t, and the US and the rest of the world’s economy are paying dearly right now for this fairy tale assumprion.
2. Squatters: Sometime refered to as undocumented occupants.  this is a perennial problem here and there is no indication any long-term cure is in place to cut the problem down to size.  The population is growing by leaps and bounds, adequate housing is very hard to find for many and there is a common feeling among some Filipinos that if a person isn’t usng somehting, he or she doesn’t need it, anyway.  More common than someone actually breaking into and occupying a house are “barnacles”.  Like the marine aninal, peple may see your property wall or even the wall f your house as a convenient ’starting point’ for a little hovel they throw together out of cardboard and cast off plywood.  Once this happens you are in for exspense, protracted negotiations, exspense for sure (you at the least will have to provide another place for these folks to live in ordert o get them off your land) and even violence if you try to exert too much pressure too fast.  Getting into a situation where you are hosting squatters is not a place you want to be.
3. Looting: Rather than squatters, or concurrent with illegal occupancy you may return from a stay abroad to find your prize home gutted.  Pipes, electric wires, doors, windows , stairways, all are fair game.  Got a wall and heavty steel gates to protect the property?  The steel gates sell like hot cakes at so-called “junk shops” which buy all sorts of scrap without any  proof or origin required.  If your house falls victim to this, the more gates and grills there are, the more attraction the metal becomes.  Not long ago in the Philippine’s largest city, (population-wise) Quezon City, a mansion belonging to former president Estrada was torn to bits, leaving very little except the bare lot and a few broken concrete blocks.  Mr. Estrada was in jail at the time and unable to properly supervise.  The mansion had been ordered turned over to the governement by court order.  When queried about why this attrocity was allowed to occur, city officals stated, “Well, the title of the poperty was not clear until the court ruled, so we saw no need to propotect it.”

Does that logic give you a headache as it does me?  Well, welcome to the Philippines.  If there is not a legal owner onsite, and crooks and ner-do-wells start tearing a place to the ground, it’s quite likley that not a thing will be done by the authorities to protect the property.  I’m not writing about this to try to be negative, but many people think buying and owning a hosuse here in the Philippines is like what they already know by virtue of buying and owning property in the States.

As the words of the old song go, “It ain’t necessarily so”.

Now I am not trying to say that this guy walked out of jail because someone forgot to lock the door, but if I had a dollar for every high-profile prisoner who has escaped from jail in the two years I have lived here … well, I’d have a few dollars I can tell you. Sadly, this kind of stuff is in the paper nearly every day:

Suspect in deadly Philippines bombing escapes from jail: official

MANILA (AFP) — A key suspect in the 2007 bombing of the Philippine parliament building that killed seven people has escaped from prison, the justice minister said Tuesday.

Jail guards announced Ikram Indama was missing from his cell at the national police headquarters on Sunday, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez told reporters.

Indama, from the southern Philippines, and two other suspects were arrested and then indicted in December for multiple murder over the November 13, 2007 bombing of the House of Representatives…  Full escape article here:

Yep, you read that right. A guy who quite possibly blew up a couple bombs in the entryway of the House of Reprentatives and killed as many as 8 people just turns up missing one morning. Kind of makes a guy wonder.

A few months back there was an even stranger case. A convicted child rapist appealed and re-appealed his sentence while in jail and finally got some court to agree to give him an early release. Or at least that was what was reported in the papers. He left the jail, returned to his home province and made the weekend news by throwing himself a big welcome home party.

Come Monday morning the President was upset, did some checking, and found that the supposed release order was, not legal … it was more of a newspaper report thna a legal document.

The rapist was returned to custody. Upon investigating what went wrong, the President fired the chief of the Department tof Corrections due to the circumstances of the illegal release of a notorious, high-profile crim9nal with no legal order.

The fired gentleman’s response: “I’m being made a scapegoat here. I didn’t illegally release the prisoner, the prisoner just walked out.”

Anybody else consider that as a pretty strange way of weasel wording things? So how many other prisoners are in a position to just “walk out”?

Yes indeed fellows and gals, another post on jobs … jobs in the Philippines, jobs in the US to get you prepared to move to the Philippines or making jobs out of nothing at all.  Just one of the subjects we cover here at PhilFAQS, all the FAQS (Frequently Asked Questions) Philippines but a very important and a so often asked about subject.

Yesterday I talked about why you probably shouldn’t even be thinking about having a job here in the Phuilippines and I touched briefly on how you can make a business that is based … cutomers, banking and percieved location back in the USA … (or in England or Australia or any other country you’re interested in) while you, yourself, live here in the Philippines and let your clients pay your bills and build you kid’s college fund … or pay off your debts.

Here’s just one little example I had thought about mentioning yesterday and kind of ran out of time and space … Teleparenting, or perhaps you might want to call it Telenanny or teletutor service … it’s all the same in principle.  This is an idea suitable for anyone 18 through 80 … there’s no degree or other educational requirements, no licensing, no special software skills, only the same Internet and computer setup you’re using now … in short, almost too good to be true sounding, isn’t it?  Well you’ll have to be the judge of that, what you do with the idea is completely up to you.

There’s actually a lot of different niches and specialties you could tie into this idea but the one that prompted me to write this post is applicable to so many people who write me for help … the folks who feel they have no modern, marketable skills.

You feel you want to move to the Philippines, but your job is something “old tech” like driivng screws into a part on an assembly line or even walking the aisles at Wal*Mart watching the company get richer while your net pay just stagnates or gets even smaller qas the manager cuts back hours in response to decreasing sales.

(Do you know that in the Wal*Mart stores in China the employees get free health care and guranteed hours per week?  But in the US the company can’t “afford it’?  yeah, right)

Maybe you’d retire today and move to the Philippines but you just don’t have enough time in at your current job, or perhaps you’re already retired and you are suffereing from the common retirement malady … month left over at the end of your money.  Or maybe you have a wife, girl friend, other family member here in the Philippines whom you want to set up to earn a decent living, (so they don’t have to go to Saudi to clean some oil sheik’s toilets) but you don’t want to fall for the common, usually disastrous “internet cafe”, “jeepney route” or “Sari-sari store” money sinks.

You do know how to raise and mind children, don’t you?  Most of you reading this have already done it.  Those few reading here who may be new parents or not yet a parent certainly were raised by parents and already know how the job needs to be done.  (In fact if you’re 18 or younger you probably know a lot better thna your parents how t’s supposed to be done ;-)).  Well, this Bud’s for you.

In the US there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of “latchkey kids”.  Children of school age who come home every day to an empty house because both mom and dad have t work to make ends meet.  Parents have a tough choice in this area.  To provide proper, licensed day care for these kids often means that there’s no profit at all left from one or both parent’s jobs after they pay for day care … why work every day just to transfer the money to the day care center that is getting richer?

Of course in many cases it’s ok just to let the kids come home on their own … but you never know … what might they get up to, and what might happen while there is no adult supervision in the house?

That’s your work from the Philippines (or any other location on earth) opportunity for today.

• You list yourself in free directories in the areas you wish to provide your service.  It’s free on huge resources like Craigslist.  Investment?  Zero.
• You get yourself a completely free or extremely cheap US phone number for them to call … Skype, MagicJack, etc.  I’ve writtne plenty about VOIP already.
• The parent/client tells you the rules they want followed and gives you contact numbers so you can report any trouble to them and coordinate as required.
• The parent/client (if they don’t already own one) installs one or more cheap, simple web cams in their home where the children are supposed to be spending their after school time and gives you password protected aceess … built into most free web cam software.
• As an optional service the parent can furnich “Net nanny” software for the same hme computer that gives you access to the web cams, so you can supervise the children’s online activities as well as making sure they aren’t destroying the house.
• You set up a free PayPal account to be able to receive their money in their home country currency and draw it out, in cash here in the Philippines with an ATM card.
• You’re now in business. (In the Philippines but not of the Philippines)

Talk about getting paid to surf schemes … this one is a no-brainer.  Every night you check that the client children got home when they were told to, you check that thier activities are appropriate, you help with homework if desired (an extra cost option in my view), you make sure their online messaging is safe and that they aren’t chattng with some online pervert, and if nayhting goes wrong you call the parent (or 911 if the house is on fire) and let the client deal with the actual problem.

Without exageration you could monitor four ot five household’s worth of children while still providing good service and not driving yourself crazy.  How much can you charge?  I haven;’t hired a sitter in the US for years but you can use Craigslist and/or online newspapers and a Google search to find out what the rate is where you want to have your clients … I think after school programs where the parents have to drop off and pick up students easily cost $40 or $50 a week, per child … and you would be saving the parent the drop off/pick up hassles.

Providing a useful, even badly needed service, to honest folks, for an honest pay check … evrything run online is certainly not a scam … and as I said in the lead-in, there is hardly a person reading these words who is not qualified for this job.  If you raised children, are raising them or have been raised, you’re qualified.

Are you still in the US and don’t know when you’ll move to the Philippines?  Easy, start the business while US based.  It will move with you when the time is right.

You can also work in Filipino helpers, for pay or or family opportunity as you go.  When you do make the move, the business moves with you, absolutely seemlessly.

Want to go back to the US on vacation?  Or maybe share your time between the home coutry and the Philippines>  Again, the business follows your location, it doesn’t tie you down to any particular place.

Just one of many. many ways you can supplement your income or earn an hobnest living on line right now, today with virtually no investment ot special education.  So what’s your excuse now?

(for those who want to know wven more about earning while staying at home. this is a great resoucrce .. well worth the price and 100% money back guranteed … Click Here!”

Also I almost forgot.  I have so much working on line, working from home information … honest opportunites not the scam stuff, that I have started anew blog, just for the telecommuting subject. Feel free to visit as it grows from scratch.

I get a lot of questions and searches here at PhilFAQs, the source for Living In The Philippines information, about jobs for foreigners in the Philippines.

Well, they do exist, although decent ones, especially ones that yu can find from within thePhilippines are few and far between.  At the same time, though, I think the Philippines can be a great place to earn a living … for those astute enough to realize you don’y have to be singed up with a company, commuting an dpunching a time clock to earn.

For those of you who haven’t looked at my overall “job philosophy”, rather thna re-invent the wheel I let my fellow blogger Steve Pavlina say it, because he explains so well why you probably should never have a job.

So if you don’t have a job, what else can you do to earn aliving?  Well I recommend this book, by my freind Bob Martin who has been living very well here in the Philippines for more than 8 years now.  Bob doesn’t have a job and doesn’t need one.  He also doesn’t get any checks from the government or any outside support … Bob’s far from the only guy earning a living here, so it is certainly not impossible.

Today I read a post on another blog reviewing a service, run by some folks in China, offering “virtual assistants” to offices in the US and other countries who need office help and don’t want to go in for the overhead of hiring a live assistant in their home city.  The bottom line is, they offer a full-time (40 hour a week) assistant service for as low as $900 USD per month, which is about one fifth the total cost of providing office space, computers, and even minimum mandated employee benefits for equivilent service in the States.  Read the review and see if it doesn’t awake thoughts in your mind as it did mine….

Outsourcing All of Your Professional Needs

Conventional thought would lead you to believe that you should get yourself a brick-and-mortar office and populate it with full-time employees. That may be well and good for certain kinds of businesses, but it may not be the most cost-effective solution. The single greatest selling point that BPOVIA uses in selling its virtual assistant service is that you are able to save a lot of money by taking the virtual route rather than the in-person route. … full article here.

If you took the time to read the review you’ll see that the company, in my view, doesn’t really have it together so far as a service I would want to buy … but they are on the right track.

A person liivng in the Philippines who can provide basic office assitant services, or who can hire and supervise folks here who have those skills ought to be able to put together a similarr service here in the Philippines and do much better.  The costs to provide a place to work here are minimal, a computer, the Open Office package, an Internet connection and maybe a 1-800 number in the US which rings at your deak here in the Philippines is about all you would need.  $900 USD a month is more than 3 times what an average office worker is getting here, so you could hire talented people, pay them well and still be making a very nice profit.  When I worked for defense contractors in the US who provided workers to replace government workers as if they were part of the government agencies themselves, (a body shop)  we always tried to get a price double the salary we were going to pay the worker and made out very well at that 100% markup.  Marking up 200% gives a pretty significant profit margin.

Food for thought.  There’s a Lot of ways to make mney in the Philippines.

Well, it’s Friday again already, time for another installment in my questions series.   Better get started:

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Q & A: 3 October 2008: Housing Inflation

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Question: Larry wrote in with this one, thanks Larry and to all others who take the time to ask:

Maayong Buntag
From what I have read about moving to the Philippines it is by far better to rent. Almost all expats will tell you this. The only reason I could see in buying is to hedge against inflation. The thing is that I have been noticing rampant inflation in the Philippines on almost everything but housing. The price of houses and property seem to be going up but at a much slower pace than say food or petro. The rate housing in the Philippines seem to be going up is much slower than the return on investments. Could I get your assessment on the rate of inflation on housing in the Philippines?

Answer: It is very hard for me to give an overview on Philippine inflation that speaks with any authority.  I spend little and do not participate actively in the real estate market.  But the world is certainly entitled to my opinuion, so here it is ;)  Dave’s opinion is, a single family house that you plan t live in is a liability, not an asset.  It produces nothing and is never guaranteed to go up in value.

It is true that you must live somewhere, so depending upon the ‘numbers’ and your personal preferences it may make more sense to buy than to rent, but buying a house as a hedge against inflation strickes me as a poor way to invest.  If you want a hedge against inflation, buy shares of stock in companies that actually produce something of value … yes, even today … anyone want to bet that Warren Buffett is dumb in buying up General Electric at bargain basenent prices, for example?

General Electric powers the world’s electric utilities, railroads and airlines … they actually produce product which is unlikely to evr suffer long-term drops in demand, so there is a money for future value equation.

A single family house may be worth more than what you paid for it years down the ‘pike .. or it may not.  Unlike something that produces consumable goods for value, a single family house produces nothing and consumes a lot over the years.  Philippine tax laws, especially capital gains taxes, are nothing at all like the US, where buying and selling houses are virtually non-tax events for home owners. (and of course you will be subject to Philippine capital gains and value added taxes even as a foreigner … you can’t escape taxation by the Philippines for transactions within the Philippines as you can with outside the Philippines income/profits).

In the two years I have been living here I have had my ‘eye on’ three houses in my local community that I would be happy living in.  All were already for sale when I arrived.  All are in the 4 to 5 million pesos asking price range.  All are also occupied by caretakers as the owners are elsewhere already … thus the monthly costs for keeping these homes ‘alive’ are all in the red as far as benefits to the owners.  (You can not, by the way, safely leave a house unoccupied here, it will likely become occupied by squatters and getting them out could prove expensive, problematical and even deadly if you try to throw your weight around.)

Last month, one of the three sold for 2.8 million.  Would you want to be the owner of one of the other homes waiting more than 2 years to get nothing, or would you rather be the owner of the one that just sold at about a 30% discount?   Frankly neither situation holds much attraction to me.

Places where a lot of expats congregate … Angeles City is near me and a good example … are just loaded with very attractive homes built … even overbuilt .. by foreigners and now for sale at greatly discounted prices.  The type of home that most middle class Americans would lkely build here is way too much house for the very tiny Philippine middle class and the Filipino rich are highly unlikely to buy in other than exclusive”way, way spendy” areas that midedle class Americans can’t afford.

You are likely to get stuck waiting for another willing American to come along if you want to unload it.  Houses that buy and sell readily here in the Metro Manila area are not what the average foreigner wants to live in.

I realize that is a lot of words for a pretty non-definitive answer, but in the long run it is all up to each individual anyway … if you want to buy a home as aplace for you and your family to live, for your kids to grow up in, more power to you … but a house as an investment? There are no guarantees, good or bad.

Commercial real estate is another story completely … I’ve written about it here before and likely will write more.  You might like It Can Be Done or It Can Be Done —Part 2