Bob Martin

Can you believe it?  I hit the big Five Oh Oh - 5 0 0 - today! No, that’s not my age, so don’t start making those jokes on me!  What I mean is that as of this very article, I have personally written 500 original articles for this website!  LiP got started out in August of 2006, and in those days it wasn’t much.  I was the sole and solitary writer on the site, and I only wrote articles “when I felt like it.”  Things have changed a lot these days!  Now we have 8 writers, plus guest writers from time to time.  I write every weekday, in most cases, and the site has grown like wildfire in those two years since it started!  I must say, I am quite happy with the reception this site has gotten, and from the activity that it generates.  For that, I thank all of you!

So, what is LiP all about? Well, it is about Living in the Philippines!  It is about what it is like for a foreigner to live here permanently.  Living here is not the same, or even close to the same, as coming here for a vacation.  It takes some serious adjustments in your personality, your outlook on life and generally the person that you are if you want to succeed at living here.  Most people who move here “permanently” end up leaving in a year or two.  They can’t handle life here, because it is nothing like what they expected.  That’s what this site is all about, and that is why I am here.  I want to make it easier for you to make the adjustment to living here, by reading about what I went through in moving here.  I want to blaze the trail for you, so that you can maneuver a little easier.

When I moved to the Philippines, on May 2, 2000, there really wasn’t any information on the Internet that I am aware of about this topic.  I came here “in the blind,” so to speak.  There have been a lot of days when I said to myself - “I don’t understand this place at all, what in the world am I doing here?”  However, even when I’ve had those thoughts, I never really regretted making the move.  I try to look at it as having earned a little more education than most people, or a type of education that most people don’t necessarily recieve.  It’s an education that has not always been easy, but it has been valuable.  Talk about the old “School of Hard Knocks”!

Sometimes, when I look at some of the articles I have written, I wonder to myself - “what does this have to do with living in the Philippines?”  Well, when I think that question over in my mind, I usually come to the conclusion that almost anything I write about my day to day experiences is indeed about living in the Philippines, because these are experiences that I would not have had if not for the fact that I live here.  For example, last week, I wrote about “washed up” performers doing concert tours in the Philippines.  On first thought it doesn’t seem that has much to do with actually living in the Philippines.  However, it points to something that you should expect to see if you live here.  That’s how I look at it, anyway.  I mean, there are only so many articles that you can write about the procedure of moving here, or the adjustment that you have to make to live here successfully.  But, I feel that any peek into my life here is just one more thing that readers can look at and get a picture of what kind of lifestyle they can expect here.

I hope that all of you have enjoyed the majority of my 500 articles on this site!  None of us can agree with every single thing that a person has to say, and I don’t expect that.  What I can say, though, is that everything I have written on this site is honest, and an accurate description of my life in the Philippines.  Sometimes, I play devil’s advocate on the site, which generates some fireworks on the site, but that’s all part of life, and keeps us thinking.  But, I’ve never been dishonest in any of my writings on the site, of that I can assure you.

Well, let’s all raise our glasses and toast the first 500 articles that I’ve written here.  I hope, and expect that it’s just a small installment in what we’ll see on this site in the longrun.

It’s Monday, September 1, 2008 here in the Philippines, although it’s probably still August 31 for many people who are reading this.  The first Monday in September is Labor Day in the United States, so I thought I’d write a little bit about Labor Day in the Philippines.  Now, let me be clear, though, Labor Day in the Philippines is not celebrated on the first Monday in September.  Here in the Philippines, like in most of the world, Labor Day is May 1.

The first Labor Day in the Philippines was celebrated on May 1, around 100 years ago.  I have found sources that say that the first Philippine Labor Day was on May 1, 1903, and I have also found sources saying that the first Philippine Labor Day was on May 1, 1913.  I can’t really say which is correct, but I tend to lean toward 1903 being the correct one.

Labor Day in the Philippines is called “Araw ng Manggagawa” - Manggagawa being the Tagalog word meing “Worker” - so literally it is translated “Day of the Worker.”

Of course, Labor Day is a legal holiday, and Filipinos do not have to work on that day.  Traditionally, during that time the President tends to review the minimum wages and determines if a raise in the Minimum Wage of the country is in order.  Most jobs in the Philippines pay the minimum wage, and thus, most worker’s wages are set by the government, since they set the minimum wage.  Sometimes, I wonder if people here realize that in the USA, and most first world countries, only a very small minority of jobs pay minimum wage, most jobs pay well above the minimum wage.

In my research about Labor Day in the Philippines, I read that the original workers who protested for better working conditions, which started Labor Day in the Philippines, were asking for these items:

• Eight Hour Work Day
• Abolition of Child Labor
• Just Labor Standards for Women
• Liability for Capatilists

To be honest, I don’t really understand what is meant by “Liability for Capatilists.”  Perhaps they mean that if a businessman does something that injures or damages the workers in some way, he will be held legally liable.  Other than that, I can’t figure out what it may mean.

Funny thing is that here we are, around 100 years after the first Philippine Labor Day, and most of those original goals are, in my opinion, still not realized by Philippine Workers:

Eight hour work day: Today, I think that most Filipinos work more than 8 hours in a single workday.  I think that 10 or 12 hours is more common.

Abolition of Child Labor: Especially in the “underground economy” of the Philippines, many children work, it is not uncommon at all.

Just Labor Standards for Women: In this area, I believe that the goal has been accomplished.  It seems to me that women are treated fairly in the workplace here (in comparison to their male counterparts).  I mean, after all, unlike most countries (especially the USA), the Philippines has had two Female Presidents now.

What do you think, is the workforce in the Philippines treated fairly?

Over the years, I have noticed time and time again that the Philippines seems to be a lingering stage for washed up performers.  Time and again, bands that were popular 25, 30, even 50 years ago tour in the Philippines, and often to sold out audiences!  I mean, we are talking about people who were popular in the States back in the 60’s, even in the 50’s.  We are talking about bands and singers from the USA, Australia and other places in the world.  These people were famous in their home countries, or even worldwide in their day, but sadly their day seems to have passed.  Many of these performers would have a hard time drawing much of a crowd back home in the USA, yet they play to sold-out audiences here in Davao, and in other Cities in the Philippines like Manila, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.

Of course, most of these people play in Manila, but more and more they are venturing south.  With the latest troubles in Mindanao, I can’t be certain that they will continue this trend, but in the past couple of years this has been the case.

One thing that I have a hard time understanding is how people can afford tickets for these events.  Tickets for such events here in Davao often go for as much as P3,000 (about $70 or so), and this is at fairly large venues that can hold thousands of people!  Often, even the lowest priced tickets are a minimum of P500 or so, which would seem to be totally out of reach of even middle class families here.  I mean, P500 is about $12 or so, and the average salary here is only around P4,000 to P6,000 per month.  That is as much as 1/8 of a month’s salary!  Wow!

What do you think?  Does it surprise you that these seemingly washed up performers can still rake in a few bucks here in the Philippines?

photo credit: artolog

I lost a friend a few weeks ago.  He passed away at a young age, just 48, way too young to die.  I say that I lost a friend, but the truth is that I never met the man.  I felt like he was a friend, though.  He was a man that I wanted to meet for a couple of years now.  I have been told that he also wanted to meet me.  There were two or three times when we had each been scheduled to be at certain places at the same time and would finally meet each other, but in each instance one of us, or the other, was unable to make it.  Honestly, I was shocked when I heard of his death.

The man that I am speaking of is a great man indeed.  His name is Datu Toto Paglas.  Toto was a Muslim man who hailed from Maguindanao Province, here on the island of Mindanao.  In terms of his family, and his people, Toto was literally royalty.  He was born of a father who was the head of one powerful Muslim family and a mother who was from a second powerful family in Muslim Mindanao.  He was the product of the two most powerful families in Muslim Mindanao, yet these two families were mortal enemies, until Toto came along.  It was through Toto that the Paglas clan and the Pendatun clan came together.

It all happened in the late 1950’s when the senior Datu Paglas (Toto’s father) met a young lady and fell in love.  Unfortunately, this love was taboo, because she was the daughter of the family’s mortal enemy, the Pendatun clan.  Although their love was forbidden by the elders in each of their families, they wed secretely and had a child.  When this child came, the families decided to put their differences aside and join forces.  With this joining of forces, Datu Toto Paglas, a mere child, became royalty - having come from the two most powerful Muslim families in Mindanao at that time, and finally having joined together.

Over the years, Toto’s story took many turns, and in the long run, he put his immense power to good use.  He brought peace to his village, which is aptly named after his father and him as well, Datu Paglas Town, Maguindanao.  I visited Datu Paglas myself last year, I wanted to witness the place that boasts of such a powerful story of peace.  In the 1990’s when Toto was the mayor of Datu Paglas, he started a banana plantation and put people to work - Christians and Muslims.  This banana plantation, and Toto’s many other accomplishments and projects brought work for poor people in Maguindanao, and it brought peace to an area that had previously been at war.  There was a day when you could be shot for any reason in Datu Paglas, even for no reason at all.  Those days are gone, though, thanks to Toto and his vision of peace.  You can read the full story about Toto’s childhood and adult accomplishments on my Mindanao Blog, if you like.

Toto died on August 8, 2008, and his death shocked me.  I didn’t even know he was sick.  He died at Davao Doctor’s Hospital.  He died of meningitis, and complications of Diabetes.  Toto knew that I wanted to meet him, and I was told that he also wanted to meet me and was aware of the things that I have done to promote Mindanao over the Internet.  I really wish that I would have had the opportunity to meet this great man.  In addition to his work bringing peace to Mindanao, Toto was also a member of the Eisenhauer Foundation, working on bringing peace to every part of the world.

I wish we could have met, Toto!

In my dealings with other expats here in the Philippines, one subject that comes up regularly is that it is hard for us to tell the age of people here in the Philippines.  Some people look much younger than their physical age, while others tend to look older than they really are.  It seems that it is just hard to tell for certain how old a person actually is.

I know one expat who is a single man, and he tells me often that this is a real problem for him.  As a matter of fact, this person has resorted to actually checking the ID of any potential dating partner to verify the age before he actually dates the person!  He does this because he is afraid of actually dating somebody and then later finding out that the person is much younger than he though.  That could turn into a good way to get into some serious trouble, and I don’t blame this fellow for his caution.

Personally, because I am married, I don’t have this same problem, but still, I often have trouble telling ages of people here.  Part of it is because people here are generally smaller than people in the USA where I come from.  So, when you see somebody who is very small, you cannot automatically assume that the person is a child.

Often times, I will meet a Filipino that is young looking, and in the back of my mind I will be trying to judge what their age is.  In my mind, the person looks like they are only 14 to 16 years old, yet in reality I will often find out that they are much older, sometimes as much as 23 to 25 years old!  That is nearly 10 years difference from what I thought they were!  Because of this, you have to be careful saying things that may give away the age that you are estimating they are, otherwise you might say something embarrassing.

Another thing that I find is that sometimes you will meet somebody who is much older than they appear!  This generally happens if the person is quite poor and has lead a tough life.  If the person is 25 to 30 years old, they often may look 40, even older!  I remember one time when I had an employee that I thought was around 50 years old, and it turned out that she ws 28!  Now, that is a major difference.

Now, there is also a flip-side to this.  I often find that many Filipinos are unable to judge the age of foreigners!  I am 46 years old, but people often mis-judge my age.  Almost anytime that I meet new people, they will ask how old I am.  My response is always the same - “How old do you think I am?”  The answer is generally 25 to 28 years old!  Now, I just cannot see how somebody would possibly think that I am 25.  Maybe they are just being kind by saying that, but honestly, I have heard it so many times, I can’t imagine that so many people would give the same answer, and I can only figure that they have as much trouble judging ages as I do with them!

Have you noticed the same that I have?

How about the girl in the photo, can you tell how old she is?