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@Tulvander12 Hi! I live in Davao  city since 30 years (3 months by year and since 3 years full time) . Davao is very safe but a lot

less modern than Cebu. Good place for eating fishes and froots....cheap compare to Manila. Good schools and hospitals...but nothing like St-Luke.  We begin to experience jam traffic. This city is quite spread and depending where you live it can be quite good, clean and quiet. The idea of renting is very good. I dont know very well Surigao (go there 2 times) but I ear good things about this place.

I have never lived in The Philippines, just visited a few times and mostly to Mindanao. One thing that you do need to be aware of is that the British Foreign Office does advise against all travel or all but essential travel to most of Mindanao including Davao. Travel insurance policies or most of them do say that your insurance can or will be invalid if you travel against Foreign Office advise. There are a few specialist Travel Insurance Companies who will cover you so I would recommend using one of them for your scouting visit. If you take out a standard insurance policy and you need to make a claim even for lost baggage or medical expenses, if they check properly and find out you were in Mindanao, your chances of claiming successfully are slim to none. You could take the chance and travel without insurance but I would not recommend it with a child.

From my limited experience I liked my short visit to Davao and always felt safe there.

@Tulvander12 Well you are well adviced not to go to Batangas, i have lived there half a year and found it the most boring place in the Philippines. People to many people leave the Philippines looking for jobs, there hardly are jobs. Even if you come from college you wont find one, and those who do end up with a silly karton hat behind the counter of jollibee. There are much more graduating students as there are jobs, most would give their right arm to go were you are now. Philippines looks romantic but only if you have enough money. Many go hungry to bed, maybe not every night but reguarly. I would suggest come for a holliday but not for jobseeking, that could proof quiet imposiible. And not every foreigner is allowed to work in the Philippines, there are bundles of restrictions for that, you will need a special visa for it and be invited by a compagny. Many Filipinas and Filipinos leave wenn they can afford a passport, wich not all can. It cost like 900 pesos for most that is already a big summ to get together. Than they find jobs abroad in Saoedi Arabia for example were they get beaten up underpaid and raped, and they take there pasports away from them. In many countries you find Filipinas sitting on deadtrow waiting for execution because they fought back with a knife to not get raped by their employers. They send their monney home, The Philippines lives from that money, the dynasties who rule the country they own the big buissneses and they own the colleges and universities, they make sure more people graduate as that there are jobs so students have to go abroad to work, that brings in foreign monney so the goverment promotes them to work abroad instead of creating work in the country. The tax paid over that money to put in their own pockets. Its a big scam. I believe there are more as 10 million Filipinas and Filipinos living and working long hours, to long hours, abroad sending their money home each month to their fathers mothers and brothers and sisters, who are not responsible at all but also make 10 children from wich half of them join that same circle of having to work abroad. Its a deadtrap thanks also to the catholic church who tells them to keep making children not allowing divorce. After 20 or 30 years living and working abroad they come home offen pennyless, their lives destroyed and waisted. I never went to Mindanao, i had a pal who did, he stayed there he got killed. Welcome to the philppines i would say, i love it but there is a lot of misery to find also.

Tulvander 12 said . . . we will spend a few months looking for jobs before making any final moves.

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Better read what Ivo Sonnenberg said and If you end up at Jollibee's please supersize my fries.

To the OP - although not an expert in looking for a job in the Philippines, the above comments from Ivo above are true, read the same many many times on this forum. I think your best chance of success in the job market would be if you worked for a western company that enabled you to work remotely.

Failing that, the only other reasonable option would be for you to do a TESL course (Teaching English as a Second Language). No good in the Philippines I expect but you could teach online to kids/students in other South East Asian or Asian countries like Vietnam, Thailand and may be South Korea. Big market for this type of work in some countries I understand. You can do these courses online or if you prefer get hands on experience and they will teach you in the country of your choice. A degree is needed for most though.

@Ivo sonnenberg Hi! I realy agree with your description of job opportunities in Phils. The problem is too much population for job opportunities....China many years ago had the same problem but they fix it... by strict birth control. I am very sad to see young graduates obligate to go abroad and to work in jobs under their qualification. About Mindanao security....I feel a lot more safe in Davao than in some area of Manila ...like Caloocan!

@Tulvander12 Hello there... I live in Mindanao with my fiancee... we live now in Dapitan, but we have also lived in Ipil, and Dipolog... I really like our area... we have a home in Tag Ulo.  We love it here... beautiful area, friendly people, great fresh produce in the markets that are priced well... some pretty great restaurants also...  and... the traffic is nothing like Luzon... Yuk.  Lol.. So anyways... good luck with your search... Maybe travel over this way and check it out.  We like also Cagayan de Oro... and we also like to visit Dumaguete sometimes... if you like a little larger city life... For us most of the time our small cities here are perfect.  Cheers

****

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IVO Sonnenberg said. . . . I live in Mindanao with my fiancee... we live now in Dapitan, but we have also lived in Ipil, and Dipolog... I really like our area... we have a home in Tag Ulo. We love it here...

Then he again said . . . I lived with fiancees also, they were all ***. Most Filipinas have a Filipino on the side without you noticing that, did you know that? Thats the cold truth.

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When I hear the word or description of Fiancee it does not have much meaning, it's a polite way of saying shacking up.

There are a lot of Expat ****

@Enzyte Bob Yes most foreigners treat Filipinas badly. they make a list at home of woman they met on datingsites, than they come to the Phillipines to work down the list. Most of them are perverts going with young girls, in their own countries they would be arrested if a 60 year old would walk hand in hand with a barely 18 year old true a mall. They come to me and say; Ivo i found her, this is the love of my life! Than i reply: yes but you are not the love of her life stupid! Woman are not word much in the Phillippines, you can do basicly do with them what you want, and foreigners who should know better, they do with them whatever they want. A scandal actualy. Not that Filipinos vallue their woman better, they hop from one on the other leaving a track of children behind, never look back to feed them, the streets are filled withs streetchildren who noboddy seems to want to have. No responsibility or respect at all, in fact a recent study of the UNDP (united nations devellopment program) found that 99.5 % of Filipinos hold biases against woman. If with foreigners or with Filipinos, woman are always getting the shorrt end of the stick. If you go with a Filipina, she will lose her social status, no Filipino will touch her again and bring her home to his mother. She is marked. And once they are out of their social environment they are never let in again. So a pool is created of woman who go with foreigners, but most of those woman if interested in you, will already have one or more foreigners before you. Love there you find only in soapseries they like to gaze at on television, in real life they want pero, and you are the closest ATM to get it from. And since you only want ***, you give it to them. Do you make them real happy in life with that? You give the answer yourself.

@mugteck @mugteck For a lot of foreigners i investigated behind their girlfriends back if they were any good, in 86 % of the cases i looked into, they were not. They were cheaters. There always is a Filipino lurking in the shadows living of the crums falling from the foreigners table. They just cannot let go of those guys.

Keep fooling yourself and call me stupid, i just smile inside my mind and go my ways.

@mugteck @mugteck For a lot of foreigners i investigated behind their girlfriends back if they were any good, in 86 % of the cases i looked into, they were not. They were cheaters. There always is a Filipino lurking in the shadows living of the crums falling from the foreigners table. They just cannot let go of those guys.
Keep fooling yourself and call me stupid, i just smile inside my mind and go my ways.
-@Ivo sonnenberg

While what you say is no doubt true all that actually proves is that 86% of the foreigners who were already suspicious about their girlfriend cheating on them and were able and willing to pay your expensive fee to investigate further, had their suspicions confirmed. So that still leaves a massive percentage of foreigners who are living a happy life with their partner and although a small percentage of these women will no doubt be cheating, most will not.

@mugteck @mugteck For a lot of foreigners i investigated behind their girlfriends back if they were any good, in 86 % of the cases i looked into, they were not. They were cheaters. There always is a Filipino lurking in the shadows living of the crums falling from the foreigners table. They just cannot let go of those guys.
Keep fooling yourself and call me stupid, i just smile inside my mind and go my ways.
-@Ivo sonnenberg

Where do you get those figures from Ivo? How many westerners did you interview? 3 by the look of 86%. One of those wasn't sure.  Seems you have a cynical view of Filipinos, perhaps try another country? Pick your partner better next time? Use your head and not the spare one.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve

I did not interview westerners, i found out for them if their filipinas were cheating on them, they asked me to dos so. I have a talent for that. I must have done that like 50 times over a period of 4 years. My findings were schocking. Nevertheless most of those guys just went on with their relationships. I am not cynical i am realistic. Noboddy likes to hear the truth, but that was what i found out. Now you hate the messenger and want him even to leave the country. I find that funny. Tells a story about you.. cannot deal with facts. Those small minded people are offen insulting, comes with the brand i suppose. Mental dwarfs as i call them.

Switzerland is nice this time of year.

@Cherryann01 Verry true, i never said there were no good Filipinas, maybe someboddy else had an other results. I can only talk about my own results. And indeed all those guys were already suspicious. Thats why they asked me. They could not get a finger behind it. But i made me think. Its hard for them to let go of their own. Not speaking Tagalog all day but Englisch with a foreigner who in most cases wants to have little to do with their family. Its understandable in a way. Nevertheless wenn i made my count i found it schocking. But it also works the other way around, a lot of foreigners treat Filipinas like something you can throw away. They call it over themselves to be scammed. A lot of foreigners are seeing more as one Filipina also. You dont have to investigate that, they brag about it out loud in bars. I just shared my experiences, no need to atack me and insult me, thats kind of silly.

@mugteck Verry good, you found out something you are right in.

I have known about 50 couples where one is a Filipina and the husband is a westerner from USA, UK, Canada or Germany.  All are living together, about 40 of them in the USA, about 10 in the Philippines, except for two divorces here in the USA.  One guy was 63 and he married a 23year old Filipina, brought her to the USA.  After she became a duel citizen she divorced him and hooked up with a younger man.  The other guy married a Filipina and brought her to the USA, she was close to his age, 35, but decided she did not want to stay with him, he was not rich enough, so she got a divorce.  At age 40 he returned to the Philippines and found a new 22 year old bride.  She came to the USA and are still happy six years later.   

              The Filipinas involved in these marriages came from all over the Philippines and all over the world.  One came from Saipan another from Singapore, a couple from Hong Kong.  I see 96% success rate, a bit higher than 14%.

mugteck said . . . . I have known about 50 couples where one is a Filipina and the husband is a westerner from USA, UK, Canada or Germany. All are living together, about 40 of them in the USA, about 10 in the Philippines, except for two divorces here in the USA. One guy was 63 and he married a 23year old Filipina, brought her to the USA. After she became a duel citizen she divorced him and hooked up with a younger man. The other guy married a Filipina and brought her to the USA, she was close to his age, 35, but decided she did not want to stay with him, he was not rich enough, so she got a divorce. At age 40 he returned to the Philippines and found a new 22 year old bride. She came to the USA and are still happy six years later. 
       The Filipinas involved in these marriages came from all over the Philippines and all over the world. One came from Saipan another from Singapore, a couple from Hong Kong. I see 96% success rate, a bit higher than 14%.

One thing not mentioned besides the age difference and the availability of a younger man and financially better man is a Filipino tendency to walkaway from a marital situation with no regrets when it suits them.

Switzerland is nice this time of year.
-@mugteck

As is Sweden.

Cheers, Steve.

I did not interview westerners, i found out for them if their filipinas were cheating on them, they asked me to dos so. I have a talent for that. I must have done that like 50 times over a period of 4 years. My findings were schocking. Nevertheless most of those guys just went on with their relationships. I am not cynical i am realistic. Noboddy likes to hear the truth, but that was what i found out. Now you hate the messenger and want him even to leave the country. I find that funny. Tells a story about you.. cannot deal with facts. Those small minded people are offen insulting, comes with the brand i suppose. Mental dwarfs as i call them.
-@Ivo sonnenberg

Facts? You haven't presented any. Only a bias opinion. So you say that in 4 years you researched 50 individual cases of the Filipina wife/fiancé cheating on the better half? That's one customer per month, you must get around to know 50 foreigners that want their ladies checked out, so only 50 and they were all cheating? No figures on the other 50 or 1,000 that you interviewed that weren't cheating?

Cheers, Steve.

I did not interview westerners, i found out for them if their filipinas were cheating on them, they asked me to dos so. I have a talent for that. I must have done that like 50 times over a period of 4 years. My findings were schocking. Nevertheless most of those guys just went on with their relationships. I am not cynical i am realistic. Noboddy likes to hear the truth, but that was what i found out. Now you hate the messenger and want him even to leave the country. I find that funny. Tells a story about you.. cannot deal with facts. Those small minded people are offen insulting, comes with the brand i suppose. Mental dwarfs as i call them.
-@Ivo sonnenberg

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Facts? You haven't presented any. Only a bias opinion. So you say that in 4 years you researched 50 individual cases of the Filipina wife/fiancé cheating on the better half? That's one customer per month, you must get around to know 50 foreigners that want their ladies checked out, so only 50 and they were all cheating? No figures on the other 50 or 1,000 that you interviewed that weren't cheating?

Cheers, Steve.
-@bigpearl

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lvo sonnenberg53 ?

mugteck said . . . . I have known about 50 couples where one is a Filipina and the husband is a westerner from USA, UK, Canada or Germany. All are living together, about 40 of them in the USA, about 10 in the Philippines, except for two divorces here in the USA. One guy was 63 and he married a 23year old Filipina, brought her to the USA. After she became a duel citizen she divorced him and hooked up with a younger man. The other guy married a Filipina and brought her to the USA, she was close to his age, 35, but decided she did not want to stay with him, he was not rich enough, so she got a divorce. At age 40 he returned to the Philippines and found a new 22 year old bride. She came to the USA and are still happy six years later.
    The Filipinas involved in these marriages came from all over the Philippines and all over the world. One came from Saipan another from Singapore, a couple from Hong Kong. I see 96% success rate, a bit higher than 14%.
One thing not mentioned besides the age difference and the availability of a younger man and financially better man is a Filipino tendency to walkaway from a marital situation with no regrets when it suits them.
-@Enzyte Bob

The other 48 couples are still married and still together, there are available young men here in the USA.  Most Filipinas are between 5 and 15 years younger than their husbands.  One couple is 25 years different in age, retired in Cebu. The other large difference in age is a retired military man from UK and his 28 years younger wife, they return to UK during rainy season, spend the rest of the year in Ilocos Sur.  I have not hired an investigator nor done any further research myself.  Most of these people are friends and we see them a few times a year, but not have been to Cebu, but skyp them often.

mugteck, I've been knocking around here for 13 years and can count on 2 hands the westerners I've met here and mostly I steer clear. To have vetted 50 westerners in 4 years with regards to a cheating/lying partner is beyond belief, Twilight Zone revisited?

I'm a newbie with a 13 year relationship with a Filipino and most of the local westerners I have met have their Pinay partners for 20 to 40 years and still happy, I did meet one guy, an arrogant piece of sh1t (OMO) @ 80 Y/O trying to sell the property as he and his wife split after 30 years He seemed to be a self opinionated pr1ck and our chat didn't last very long. So given my experience with westerners and local ladies it seems only 10% not 86% as one member sprouted.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

Also met and see on a monthly basis when I am in Ilocos Sur, 11 westerners, with one dying this year, he only lived about a mile from us.  Hope to see his widow when we return this October.