As I ready myself for that long haul through the stratosphere my thoughts turn towards home, and home these days is of course the Philippines. Joysa and I have decided to shack up and my personal life being complicated by the Philippines' lack of a Divorce statute means that I will be primarily living in the Metro Manila area. I still haven't decided whether or not to divest from my business interests on Mindanao but no matter how that plays out, for the forseeable future I will still be compelled to travel to Mindanao every month, at the very least.
The studio I sublet, though in a luxury building (Rada Regency Thailand, in Makati's Legazpi Village), is a mere 31 square meters. The price is fantastic, about 240 US a month, but not large enough for a couple in my way of thinking. I have had a couple of mates pounding the pavement and have found a fully furnished 1 Bedroom condo subletting, in my building no less, for 20,000 Pesos per month (roughly 430 US). In Southeast Asia, apartments and condos do not come with even basic appliances. Getting a furnished unit saves me the headache of buying a fridge and stove and installing them in a sublet unit.
I prefer my own building because I love the rooftop pool. At night, 27 floors high in the sky, overlooking the vast metropolis below, it has a lot to be said for it. The unit is a corner on the 24th floor. Joysa of course has spent her entire life living in a squatter hovel. Living just 2 houses from the Haganoy River in Bulacan Province, immediately north of Metro Manila, the entire neighbourhood floods waist deep at high tide. Joysa is 75% Tagalog and 25% Kapampangan but almost everyone around her is Tagalog. Tagalogs, unlike Bisaya and other Southern Tribes do not use stilt homes. To me it seems to be merely common sense to try and elevate your home above the same river your sewage empties into but hey, that's just me. Not a single home is elevated!
At high tide the family stays on the second floor and allows the sewage to fester downstairs. Then they wonder why they get Cholera and Amoebic Dysentery. Anyway, I suppose, though it hasn't been discussed, that I will build her family a new home. IF they are able to get title to the tract they squat on I wll build a decent one but if not, I will simply re-build the home they currently occupy, though I will try to convince her parents to raise it a at least 3 meters (9 feet).
Now that I have decided to take this step I keep thinking of the Ellah Joy Pique tragedy. On February 8th, 2011 on Cebu Island, 6 year old Ellah was just leaving school with her little friends. A Mitsubishi Pajero with a white man and a much younger Filipina stopped, and Ellah got in. Less than a day later her raped and beaten body was discovered in a rubbish pile.
The white man was in his late 40s to early 50s, tatooed, blonde and goateed, his companion was dark skinned with Chinese eyes, as they are called in the Philippines. A few days later a Norwegian man and his "fiance" were on line at a ticket counter in the Cebu City Airport (Mactan), waiting to fly to Hong Kong. The gentleman was a computer engineer on the shy side of 50 and his "fiance" was a 24 year old RN, the single mother of a 3 year old daughter. Having met on an online dating site the Norwegian had quickly flown to the Philippines to seal the deal. Though only knowing each other for 3 weeks, including the time spent online, they decided to marry (not a difficult decision for a single Filipina living in poverty, don't let the RN aspect fool you), they were going to Hong Kong to fuck - I mean celebrate.
People were demanding blood. The couple was whisked away to the headquarters of the Cebu branch of the NBI, or National Bureau of Investigation. There they were interrogated repeatedly over the course of 10 days, sleeping and spending most of their time in an empty office, though at least they were kept together (terrible interrogative technique). In the end they were able to prove that they couldn't be the couple because their hotel had them on videotape all during the girl's disappearance. Almost all hotels in the Philippines lack CCTV but because the man stupidly shelled out for a 5 Star hotel their lives are saved. Can you imagine? What if he had been like 99% of the foreigners visiting Cebu? Or, what if they had decided to go shopping, or sight seeing on their own during that time, or, what if they hadn't stayed at a hotel with CCTV? A foreigner does a heinous act and soon foreigners are being plucked off of the street.
In the end the couple was released and had their request for a Norwegian Visa for the woman expedited, and were able to marry in Norway. The authorities then claimed it was a second couple, a Briton and another young Filipina. The man had already returned to England and so British authorities snatched him up, only to release him 2 days later. Apparently investigators in England do not believe him to be the culprit though the Philippines is trying to get to him, though no extradition agreement exists. The Filipina has gone on the lam, not suprisingly. Seeing as how 4 eyewitnesses had sworn it was the first couple I don't know what to think. What I do know is that I will never live in an expat colony, which is how both men were fingered.
Foreigners come to the Philippines and then try and form some semblance to their home country. They flock to the same housing complexes, patronise one another's businesses, and live a totally different lifestyle from the locals. I don't see much sense in that. If you need home that badly, why leave? To me? That makes them easy targets when something like that case takes place.
The studio I sublet, though in a luxury building (Rada Regency Thailand, in Makati's Legazpi Village), is a mere 31 square meters. The price is fantastic, about 240 US a month, but not large enough for a couple in my way of thinking. I have had a couple of mates pounding the pavement and have found a fully furnished 1 Bedroom condo subletting, in my building no less, for 20,000 Pesos per month (roughly 430 US). In Southeast Asia, apartments and condos do not come with even basic appliances. Getting a furnished unit saves me the headache of buying a fridge and stove and installing them in a sublet unit.
I prefer my own building because I love the rooftop pool. At night, 27 floors high in the sky, overlooking the vast metropolis below, it has a lot to be said for it. The unit is a corner on the 24th floor. Joysa of course has spent her entire life living in a squatter hovel. Living just 2 houses from the Haganoy River in Bulacan Province, immediately north of Metro Manila, the entire neighbourhood floods waist deep at high tide. Joysa is 75% Tagalog and 25% Kapampangan but almost everyone around her is Tagalog. Tagalogs, unlike Bisaya and other Southern Tribes do not use stilt homes. To me it seems to be merely common sense to try and elevate your home above the same river your sewage empties into but hey, that's just me. Not a single home is elevated!
At high tide the family stays on the second floor and allows the sewage to fester downstairs. Then they wonder why they get Cholera and Amoebic Dysentery. Anyway, I suppose, though it hasn't been discussed, that I will build her family a new home. IF they are able to get title to the tract they squat on I wll build a decent one but if not, I will simply re-build the home they currently occupy, though I will try to convince her parents to raise it a at least 3 meters (9 feet).
Now that I have decided to take this step I keep thinking of the Ellah Joy Pique tragedy. On February 8th, 2011 on Cebu Island, 6 year old Ellah was just leaving school with her little friends. A Mitsubishi Pajero with a white man and a much younger Filipina stopped, and Ellah got in. Less than a day later her raped and beaten body was discovered in a rubbish pile.
The white man was in his late 40s to early 50s, tatooed, blonde and goateed, his companion was dark skinned with Chinese eyes, as they are called in the Philippines. A few days later a Norwegian man and his "fiance" were on line at a ticket counter in the Cebu City Airport (Mactan), waiting to fly to Hong Kong. The gentleman was a computer engineer on the shy side of 50 and his "fiance" was a 24 year old RN, the single mother of a 3 year old daughter. Having met on an online dating site the Norwegian had quickly flown to the Philippines to seal the deal. Though only knowing each other for 3 weeks, including the time spent online, they decided to marry (not a difficult decision for a single Filipina living in poverty, don't let the RN aspect fool you), they were going to Hong Kong to fuck - I mean celebrate.
People were demanding blood. The couple was whisked away to the headquarters of the Cebu branch of the NBI, or National Bureau of Investigation. There they were interrogated repeatedly over the course of 10 days, sleeping and spending most of their time in an empty office, though at least they were kept together (terrible interrogative technique). In the end they were able to prove that they couldn't be the couple because their hotel had them on videotape all during the girl's disappearance. Almost all hotels in the Philippines lack CCTV but because the man stupidly shelled out for a 5 Star hotel their lives are saved. Can you imagine? What if he had been like 99% of the foreigners visiting Cebu? Or, what if they had decided to go shopping, or sight seeing on their own during that time, or, what if they hadn't stayed at a hotel with CCTV? A foreigner does a heinous act and soon foreigners are being plucked off of the street.
In the end the couple was released and had their request for a Norwegian Visa for the woman expedited, and were able to marry in Norway. The authorities then claimed it was a second couple, a Briton and another young Filipina. The man had already returned to England and so British authorities snatched him up, only to release him 2 days later. Apparently investigators in England do not believe him to be the culprit though the Philippines is trying to get to him, though no extradition agreement exists. The Filipina has gone on the lam, not suprisingly. Seeing as how 4 eyewitnesses had sworn it was the first couple I don't know what to think. What I do know is that I will never live in an expat colony, which is how both men were fingered.
Foreigners come to the Philippines and then try and form some semblance to their home country. They flock to the same housing complexes, patronise one another's businesses, and live a totally different lifestyle from the locals. I don't see much sense in that. If you need home that badly, why leave? To me? That makes them easy targets when something like that case takes place.