Maybe buy a place away from the flood areas and hurricanes if you can, and after that avoid all the radical Islamic types that want your head.
After that, you should be fine. -guy
***
My Advice...
1. Learn Spanish
2. Stay in the Northern Philippians to avoid the crazy muzzies that live in the south.
That is all I know at the moment- Grace
Ignorance is the display of not knowing truth or facts about the subject.
I now live in Davao City on the notorious island of Mindinao. There are Muslims everywhere in the world, but in this city, the mayor is a no-nonsense man that keeps good control of the bad elements.
There are about 2.5 million people in the DaVao City area, and though many people live meager lives, there are 11 mega-malls.
Davao is out of the hurricane region (they are called typhoons in the Pacific!), and I can recall lots of floods in America. It depends on what you want. Alex lives at the beach on Cebu Island. I live on the beach here. I am in a subdivision of around 1000 homes, rich and not-so, and Alex is along the highway. I moved to Davao from Ormoc City, Leyte, the week before Typhoon Yolanda wiped out much of that islands infrastructure and destroyed more than 100,000 homes. God spared me, as the house I rented there was among those destroyed. Manila is the largest city, but it has too many problems, due to almost 20 million population, and subsequent high prices, heavy traffic, and pollution. There are lots of us "forriners" everywhere in the Philippines. p>I came to the Philippines to enjoy my latter years. I am now 66. It is warm, the people are among the friendliest in the world, and you can speak English to anyone, though some look at you like you are speaking a foreign language (hehe). English is the common language. Christianity is prevalent, mostly Roman Catholic, but I attend a Baptist Church, where English is the language used. There are all types of Protestant congregations. You can do a search.
Though Spain was present here for hundreds of years, the common language is NOT SPANISH, though some of the dialects contain modifications of Spanish words. It is a poor country, which benefits us, as we can employ housekeepers, groundskeepers and cooks for $50-75 a month, full time.
Foreigners are prohibited from buying property, but you can buy into a condominium or rent, which is what I do. I rent a three bedroom house looking out over the water for 12,000 PhPesos, at the current exchange rate of 44.46=$1, that is less than $300 a month. My total monthly expenses including food are less than $1000 USD!
For answers to most of your questions, I recommend you join the Yahoo Group:
LivingInThePhilippines3
The view from the front of my house...
