Live in the Philippines

Live in the Philippines helps expats with visas, moving and other services regarding the Philippines.

Safety in the Philippines

When I moved to the Philippines in 2000, the biggest concern that my family and friends expressed to me was about the safety of living in the Philippines.  Others who have made the move have told me that they experienced the same concern from their family and friends back home.

The truth is that safety is a concern these days no matter where in the world you may live.  Whether it is in the USA, Europe or anywhere else, safety must be considered, and the Philippines is no different.

Read the articles in this archive to learn more about safety issues for those living in the Philippines.

One big problem in the Philippines is the number of scams that will be tried on you if you live here or are just visiting.  There are a lot of scammers out there and you must be careful and always keep in mind that the person you are dealing with may be trying to scam you.  For more information about Scams in the Philippines, read our archive about Philippine Scams.

Many foreigners who move to the Philippines (primarily Americans) are concerned about wanting to own a Gun for their own protection in the Philippines.  Read about gun ownership in the Philippines in our archive about Guns.

The Manila Massacre

Philippine Politics, Safety

Last year, we had the Maguindanao Massacre, where the Ampatuan family allegedly murdered around 60 people, mostly from the Mangudadutu clan in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao Province.  The legal part of that massacre is still unresolved, but now we have another massacre to talk about, the Manila Massacre.  I’m talking about last week’s hostage situation in […]

Corrupt Police! Oh my!

Philippine Politics, Safety

Corruption, corruption!  Corruption is terrible in the Philippines, didn’t you know that?  I mean, you can hardly go an hour in your life without facing some terrible kind of corruption. Or at least, that is what people say. In my life, I simply have not experienced such terrible things, though.  Maybe I am different than […]

Why do a lot of foreigners think the Philippines is dangerous?

Expats, Safety

Do you think that the Philippines is a dangerous place?  A lot of foreigners think it is.  If you look at the news from overseas, about the only time you ever hear mention of the Philippines is when something bad happens.  A bombing.  A kidnapping.  Some kind of massacre like what happened last year in […]

What are they smoking in Washington?

Expats, Safety

Are the American politicians smoking something that they should not be smoking?  Sometimes, it seems so.  In the last day or two, the United States Government issued another travel warning to American Citizens, warning against travel to Mindanao.  What else is new. Fact is, the USA has been issuing travel warnings against visiting Mindanao for […]

Dear Feyma: OFW Disappearance

Safety

Just a few days ago I got an interesting email from a person in the Middle East. He had a Filipina employee (Domestic Helper) at his house. Somehow early this month she went missing. He was trying to reach out to the family of the employee here in the Philippines and he couldn’t get any […]

Protecting yourself

Safety

This is not an easy article for me to write.  Sometimes bad things happen, and some bad things happened in my household last week.  I would prefer not to write about the incident, but I feel that the information is valuable for readers of this site, so I will write about it as best I […]