RP best retirement haven for foreign nationals, says Gen. Aglipay

General Santos City (29 March) — Smile at life…in the Philippines!

Retired Police Director General Edgar Aglipay, chairperson of the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) proudly enunciated the agency’s battle cry shoving the Philippines as retirement hub in the world.

“We have this branding because Filipinos are by nature happy people and it is the kind of service Filipinos provide – from the heart,” he explained.

PRA, a government-owned and controlled corporation supports the Philippine economy through the foreign currency remitted by foreign nationals to the country.

As lead government agency, Gen. Aglipay said PRA “has a mandate to attract foreign nationals, 35 years and above and former Filipino citizens to retire in the Philippines.”

He said its (PRA) program particularly aimed at those retirees born after World War II whom he described as “baby boomers,” and who, according to him have “a great deal of income.”

Aglipay believes that the Philippines has the best features in store for retirees, namely: climate, safety, proximity to medical supplies, highly skilled and caring people, low-cost living, natural attractions, and desirable facilities.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared the Philippine retirement industry as a key flagship program armed with the belief that the “country will benefit a lot if the potential of the retirement industry can be harnessed.”

Committed to help the government accelerate “socio-economic development; contribute to foreign currency reserve; and provide in a most attractive package the best quality of life to its foreigner-retirees,” PRA expects to generate thru its program $44B which is expected to snowball by end of 2015.

Aside from that, it also anticipates to pump employment to benefit some 4 million Filipinos. Aglipay was also confident that the program will bring about “reverse migration” and might even convince highly skilled workers and professionals to opt to stay in the Philippines rather than seek employment abroad.

“Last year was a very good year for PRA. The enrollees for special resident visitor’s visa (SRRV) have increased compared to 2004 and 2005,” Gen. Aglipay intoned.

The SRRV is a special visa that allows the holder to stay in the Philippines for one year, from the date of arrival in the Philippines.

All foreign nationals, except those classified as “restricted” by the Department of Foreign Affairs, are eligible to join the program, he stressed as he prodded “marketers and facilities to renew their accreditation for year 2007.”

“We are now working on the different incentive schemes for marketers who enroll more retirees in the program, and for facilities that would attract more retirees to invest in their properties for the coming year,” Aglipay added.

PRA, the retirees’ “home away from home” has participated in different international and local travel and trade expo to promote the retirement program of the Philippine Government.

It also provides assistance to enrollees in facilitating the processing of their application papers, investments and other business transactions in the country.

Aglipay said a retiree can choose to invest their required deposit through the following means: purchase of a condominium unit; subscription of shares of stocks in a non-traded Philippine corporation; purchase of shares of stock in existing corporations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and selected corporations traded in the Philippine Stock Exchange; long-term lease of a parcel of land or house and lot; construction of a residential unit on a leased parcel of land; and purchase of proprietary shares in golf clubs.

But he said his agency has special offer for former Filipinos “because they can purchase a lot not exceeding 5,000 square meters in urban areas or three hectares in rural areas to be used for business or other purposes.”

Aglipay has been touring the entire country to scout for viable sites where PRA can establish facilities to boost the number of destination areas for the visiting retirees.

“There are lots of existing properties available for retirement facility development that are found in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao,” he revealed.

For Region XII, he said he is eyeing a particular area in Maasim, Sarangani and Tambler, General Santos City as potential retirement havens. “Both areas have their own unique potential that can be developed into some kind of amenities for this purpose.”

Aglipay was accompanied by Sarangani Governor Migs Dominguez and Col. Willie Dangane during his tour of Sarangani-GenSan over the weekend. (PIA SarGen)

TV Shows

Living here for almost seven years now, I could really see lots of changes in tv shows. Not much to see before. Now you get lots of choices like STARWORLD, they’re showing (Oprah, Seinfeld, American Idol, Kings & Queens, Rachel Raye, Amazing Race, Survivor, and many more). STARMOVIES there showing the fairly new movies that just got out of the theater. STARSPORTS. Of course there showing the games like golf, football, cricket, tennis match, baseball and poker and more. Lifestyle it’s the copy of home and garden TV in the States, I like to watch this lifestyle channel cause I learn some tips from them, they also have some cooking shows like Wolfgang Puck, 30 Minute Meals, Barefoot Contessa, Sweet Dreams, and etc.

We do have CNN INTERNATIONAL, BBC WORLD, theres also channels that cater to other foreign speakers like German, Japanese, Spanish, Middle East, French, Indonesian, Chinese.

Of course lots of Pinoy shows. They even had reality TV show like for example Pinoy Big Brother. I am not sure if you are familiar with it. It’s like 10 or so people living in one house and one would be voted out each week. I think it’s like Survivor but they’re just living in a house. I have not watched it yet. Just heard from my people. Whenever I joined in with them for lunch I just heard them talking about it, who was voted out or what was the task given. People here are really hooked to it. Shows that people get addicted too here are Mexican and Korean soap operas. They had that translated into Tagalog dialect. My God people really watch those. It really is a hit here, that’s the main topic for lunch time here. Most of the channels here have talk shows like Oprah, celebrity gossip, game shows. If you have TFC there in your area in the States you can see some of it.

Entertainment – Putting it all together

OK, let’s wrap up our series about setting up an entertainment system!  So, you have the computer that you will use for the system, you have the TV set that you will use.  You have the computer set up with Azureus or some other Bit Torrent client so that you can download shows to watch, and you have the software needed to watch the shows.  You are all set, except one thing.  All you need to do is to hook it all up!

This part is simple.  When you chose your computer and TV set you made sure to get equipment that had matching connections, right?  That’s what I had said on my earlier post.  So, if you are going to go with a system the same as mine, you will use S-Video connection between the TV and Computer.  Just run an S-Video cable between the two components, then connect an audio cable between them as well.  After that – you’re done and ready to start watching TV shows!  It’s that simple.  If you chose another connection method like VGA or RCA cables, just do the same thing with the type of cables that you chose.

Start downloading TV shows, movies whatever you want to watch through your Bit-Torrent client, then you will be ready to start watching.

It’s not easy to explain all this in writing, it would be much easier to explain it face to face.  Because of this, I don’t doubt that some people didn’t really get the whole thing.  If you are one of those – no need to be shy about it – just post a comment with any questions that you may have, and I’ll do my very best to answer for you.

Have fun with your new entertainment setup!  Now, you can watch your favorite shows no matter where in the world you are!

Entertainment Step 3: The software for viewing shows

OK, now you have purchased all the equipment you need, you’ve download a Bit Torrent program, and have started downloading shows that you want to watch.  Once you have finished downloading a few shows, though, there is a new challenge:  how will you play the shows?

Most downloaded shows are AVI files, or WMV files.  Personally, I use Windows Media Player to view the files, but there are other players you can use too.  Windows Media Player is included with Windows.  Probably if you just double click on the file you wish to watch, Windows Media Player will open it automatically.

If you aren’t using Windows as your Operating System, there are players for other Operating Systems too.  If you use Linux, I have found that Kaffiene works great.  If you are  using Mac, there is a program, although I don’t know the name.  Certainly for Mac, just double click the file, and the proper program will open up automatically.

Here is a tip for those using Windows Media Player – once the program has started, just hit <alt+enter> and the program will go full screen.  When you do that, it looks like regular TV, not like a computer playing the program.

Entertainment Step 2: The Software for downloading

OK, after you have the computer that you will use for your entertainment system, and the monitor or TV set, it’s time for software.

The best kind of software you can use for downloading TV Shows, Movies and the like is software that will let you take advantage of Bit Torrent technology. What is Bit Torrent? It is a system where you download large files in small chunks from different people on the network who all have the file. For example, let’s just say that you are doing to download last week’s episode of “24″. If you go to a bit torrent site and look at the list of shows that are available for download, it will show statistics about the show. It will tell you how many “Seeders” there are and how many “Leechers” there are. A Seeder is a person who has the entire show and is sharing it with everybody else. A Leecher is somebody who only has a portion of the show, and is downloading the rest of it (he is also sharing the parts that he has). The more Seeders there are, the better for you, because you can have a better and quicker download. Once you have finished downloading the show, it’s best if you can leave it on your drive and share it with others for a few days at least, to contribute to the community.

OK, so how can you join in this Bit Torrent community? Well, you need software! There are a number of different programs to choose from. The one I like to use is called Azureus. If you click on the link, you can download Azureus for your own use. After downloading Azureus, install it on your computer, and you are about ready to go!

Next step, you will need to go to a site where you can choose what shows to download. Here are the sites that I use:

• Mininova: I like Mininova because it has a wide variety of different TV Shows, Music and other things available for download. Last year, I almost switched to another site because Mininova became very slow, but they have upgraded their hardware and it’s performance is quite good now.
• IsoHunt: IsoHunt also upgraded it’s hardware in the past few months. Another good site for fining available Bit Torrents. I like Mininova better, though.
• EZTV: For the very best in TV shows available for download, EZTV beats them all. The only thing you’ll find here are TV shows, but if that is what you want, you need to check out this one!

Basically, just go to any of these sites, and when you find items that you want to download, just click the download link, and Azureus will automatically start downloading. When the download is complete, a little box will pop up and tell you that the download is finished. Remember, these files are huge (300 Mb to 4 Gb), so downloads take time. On average, it might take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to download a file. But, you can have multiple downloads going at once, so it’s OK. For popular shows, where there are a lot of Seeds available on the Bit Torrent, you can generally download a one hour program in about 2 or 3 hours or so.

Happy Downloading!

Furniture Shopping

Few days ago I saw a furniture store, as I glance on the window I could see that it’s pretty good stuff. So I decided to checked it out. Wow, it shock me when I went inside, they had lots of good quality furnitures inside. The name of the store is BENTLEY. It’s just behind Chowking right across Victoria mall in Bajada. I think they had branch in some other areas in the Philippines. This place in my opinion are selling high end stuff. But don’t expect them to be a Thomasville or Ethan Allen in the States though. At least for Philippines, Bentley is good.

One furniture that I saw that I like was a tall dresser, the price tag P95,000. Their was a couch that would turn into a bed, it’s fancy with an earth tone color in a suede fabric price tag P135,000. I also saw a victorian sleigh bed with nice woodwork king size, I think if I remember the price tag P195,000 without mattress.

They’re also selling lamps, they also had good selection of comforters. I saw one that they had that I kind of like it except the price, it’s price for P80,000. They had lots of paintings if you like victorian, modern or country style. they have it. One painting that caught my eye that I really like, but it’s just expensive price for P145,000, it’s victorian painting.

One place that Bob and I like to buy our furniture is Caravan in Lanang. They had another branch now in Bajada. The name is Tanoy. We bought our couch there for P40,000, the fabric is suede and nice color. They also had good selection of furnitures and comforters, paintings and outdoor furnitures. They can also custom made for you if you like certain design. We had our comforter and curtain made by them. I did asked for discount.

If you want cheaper stuff, theirs lots of furniture place now in the Philippines like Mandaue foam, Golden bell, Emcor.  Most of this furniture places has branches in other big cities here in the Philippines. Most malls here sells furnitures stuff too.

Good luck and have fun shopping!

Entertainment Step 1: Getting the right equipment

OK, so you have decided that you want to hook up your TV and PC so that you can watch TV shows from overseas. I’ve been doing this for about three years now, although I’ve been really doing it a lot for about a year now. The first step you need to take is to make sure all your equipment is compatible.

First, let’s see what equipment we need to get everything working:

1. A TV set. Any TV can be made to work, but a newer TV will be best, because it will have a lot of different choice of types of connections that can be made. If you are going to buy a new TV to set this up, get one that has an input for a computer cable (VGA), S Video, and RCA Jacks.
2. A computer. It will be good if your computer has multiple types of video outputs. For example, the computer I use with my TV setup has a VGA output and also an S Video output. This makes it easy to hook up to my TV set, since similar connections are available on the TV.
3. Cables. Whatever connection type you choose (S Video, VGA Cable or RCA), you will need a cable to make that hookup. Make sure it is long enough to reach from your PC to your TV. In addition to the cable for the video connection, you will also need a cable to connect the sound too. Most common will be a 1/8″ plug on one end (the end that hooks to your PC sound output) and RCA plugs on the other end (will plug in to your TV set sound input).

This is it for equipment, once you have the PC, the TV and the proper cables, that’s all you will need on the hardware end.

A few comments on the equipment. For me, I have a separate PC that I dedicate to the TV set. I don’t use that computer for my day to day computer work, I have a different PC that I use for that. For example, the computer that is hooked to my TV set is not the one that I am typing this post on right now. It is a different computer. I feel that this is the way to go, but if you are on a tight budget, you can certainly use the PC for both playing items on the TV and also for your daily computer needs. The choice is yours.

New Series – Setting up an Entertainment System

Of all the things that I post about on this blog, the number one thing that I get questions about is setting up a system where you can watch US TV shows here in the Philippines. I have posted before that I have a system where I can download the shows from the USA on my computer here in the Philippines, then watch them on my TV set. It’s actually quite simple, and you can do it too.

Because of all the questions that I get about this, I decided to write a series of posts about how to set up an entertainment system like me. When I say “entertainment system” I do not mean how to set up a home theater or something like that, there are other places where you can find that information. What I mean is how to set up everything so that you can download tv shows, then view them on your TV set.

So, over the coming week, or so, let’s look at this and I’ll show you how to do it so you can also enjoy TV shows from back home, no matter where you live!

Home Building Ideas!

When Bob and I went to Gensan a few weeks ago. We swing by to see our friend Mike and Greeny who lived in Glan, Sarangani Province. They just finished up building their dream house. I really wanted to talked to Greeny, since she’s the one who design their house. I was so impressed with how good the quality and how good she design the house, eventhough she’s not an engineer.

She really gave me good tips on what to do when times for us to build our house. I’m looking forward in building our dreamhouse. But, she told me that it’s also a big headache too, she said that sometimes workers would not listen or wrong stuff that was delivered, and some other problems occured. But she said that seeing the results of the house, her headache and hardwork was really worth it. It was really a nice house with an awesome view of Mt. Matutum in her terrace. Wish we had that view.

Soon they will come here to Davao to visit us and they also want us to show them our land that we purchased in Samal. Hmm, I wonder if they would buy land here in Samal? They could be our neighbor too. I hope so.

Shopping for Groceries!

When we decided to moved here, we lived first in Gensan for 2 years. Living there were cheaper compared to living in Davao. At that time I can buy groceries for just 4-5 thousand pesos per week. Now we usually spend like 15 thousand or more per week. Just an example:

In 2000                               NOW

Chicken/kilo——————P70————————– P115- P120

Pop(coke/pepsi)————-P8.75————————-P15

Noodles(ramin/lucky me)-P3.25————————P5.95

Egg——————————P1.50————————-P3.75

Rice/kilo———————–P16—————————-P29/P30

Laundry soap—————-P9——————————P17/P18

Well, that was just some sample of the grocery items that went up. Sometimes I would wonder how can a poor family afford to buy groceries here. I mean if you go to the grocery store I haven’t seen an item that the price just went up a little. Even us that can afford, we complain of this high prices here. BUT, I think it’s still cheaper to live here than in the States.

One thing that makes my spending in groceries a bit higher than the others, sometimes I purchaced imported stuff. We used olive oil, splenda, prego spaghetti sauce, cereals, juice with splenda and many more. It’s expensive to buy this stuff. Here in Davao we can buy good meat at Lisa’s meat or at Montery. If we want good cheese, and some other meat like ostrich, lamb and sausages and ham we can get it at Swiss Deli too. They also have salmon steak.

Personally I go grocery shopping at Gaisano Mall. I think they are the one who carry a lot of imported items. SM does carry some too.