I haven’t gotten much feedback yet on my little "I’m Not Stupid" post … I imagine some folks are put off by my stance on personal safety here in the Philippines … or else they are convinced (as are many friends and family) that the heat has addled my brain and thus they don’t pay much attention to me anyway.
But a big reason I made that post a day or so back had to do with some questions I was asked a coupe months ago … about danger ‘here’ versus danger ‘there’.
I started keeping a very close track of what was going on here in Marilao. This is easy for me in some ways as my father-in-law, "Nards" is a walking newspaper. "Daddy" is retired from the central Bank and fills his days walking for both help and gossip. He travels most streets in our community several times a day, and he’s also a Director of our local home Owners’ Association so he gets stopped buy people on a daily basis with complaints, questions or news to pass on. He hears about many things that weren’t in the newspaper or on Bob’s Bulacan blog.
There are of course criminals and low-life’s here. One of the reasons I have been hesitant to write articles like this is a bit of in-born superstition where I think if I say "It’s safe here" I’ll automatically be the victim of a crime the very next day. So far i haven’t, but, as one of my favorite characters, "Curly" (City Slickers (1991) once said, "Day ain’t over yet."
The most common crime in our area are break-ins, typically during the day when the occupants are all away. recently there was such an event at anew apartment house near here where the burglars were so sure of themselves they stopped and cooked themselves a meal before departing with a truck load of the owner’s goods. You can’t leave a house vacant, period. I hear a lot of foreigners talk about buying a home and living in it only a few months out of the year … bad plan.
Another frequent (6 times in the last year or so) is "car napping" a Filipino phrase which originally seems to have meant "car jacking" but now applied to any sort of auto theft. Most of these incidents have centered around folks back out of their driveways and leaving the car running while they get out and close the gates … again, a big no no, shut off the car, take the key and lock the doors, even if you are just running back in the house for a second … strangers can come out of nowhere.
But to put a little balance back in the picture … in addition to the school shootings and church shootings so common in the US … a couple of them within the last year all very near our old Colorado home, how about this one ..
A couple in Colorado Springs (in a good area of town, by the way) were sitting in their easy chairs about 30 inches apart, watchi8ng TV … exactly as my wife an I have spent many evening hours, both in Colorado and Marilao. there was a noise and a hole magically appeared in the wall behind the TV. Investigation revealed someone shot and the bullet passed between the couple and lodged in the wall. The newspaper article hinted the couple won’t find out much more about it though, because the shooter is known .. he’s a member of the police force who shot at someone he was chasing and was perhaps not as familiar with which end of his gun made the noise as he should have. Geez, can’t believe how many laws and departmental regs that guy breeched … but the couple, who escaped death by a matter of 15 inches each at best can’t find out much more because (can you believe this?) the police won’t reveal any more information … it’s a matter of Homeland Security you see.
So where is the safer place to live? I can’t say, I can only tell people of things as they happen and let them make their own judgement.
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Bob’s Bulacan blog? Haven’t seen that one.
Hello, Jonathan, thanks for coming by and, especially, thanks for you comment.
If you could keep track on all Bob Martin’s blogs you would be better organized than I, but the main list is on this page:
http://www.mindanao.com/blog/
Look over there in the right-hand column…among many other efforts, Bob has ab log for every province in the Philippines … all 81 of them. Bulacan is here:
http://luzon.p7107.com/bulacan/
These are mainly news gathering and disseminating sites, Bob has full-time employees sorting out the news for regions and provinces and posting it where it belongs, geographically … a very useful service to folks who wnat to know about specific regions.
Philly,
For me, the biggest issue is the safety in schools. For years we have read about the violent incidents at schools in the US. Now, here in Australia, we are starting to experience more frequent episodes of violence at high schools.
One of the prime motivating factors for me to move to the Philippines is that I believe that my children will be educated in a much more secure environment.
p.s. What I meant to say is “safe environment”.
I would certainly agree, Laurence. One never knows (tempting fate) becuase somehting cna happen to anyone, anywaher, but certainly the continual gun anger which plagues my own country is much less evident on the street here … even though politcal assignation is a big problem.
Like everything else older guys like me visualize, this may be a disappearing state of affairs … Flipino children are taught to behave better and respect their elders (and teachers) much more so thna in the US but this may be a dying tradition.
If I were raising kids, even though there are some very good schools here (like Ateneo) I believe I would home school them with US-based course materials (Australian and other nations are available as well, everyone likely prefers their home country) and hire a full-time teacher as the tutor/administrator. I would also strictly avoid the pricey “International Schools” which in mnay cases are not nearly worth the expense and who teach their students in a ‘bubble’ of foreign influence, ignoring their Filipino heritage and often producing the privileged snob type of person.