Robbie in and around Tacloban

INTRODUCTION This can be harder than one would think. Most foreigners think it is about investing some money and you start to make a living. My intention is not to kill a dream but to advise on my personal experience. This article is more aimed at foreigners living in a province. BUYING LAND IN THE PHILIPPINES As far as I am aware and have spoken to different attorneys a foreigner cannot own land here. I read on the internet there are ways around this but my but not so on the legal advice I have received. I am married with a family and the land is in my wife’s name. After 5 years the value of this land (1000 square meters) is 300% higher than what we paid. Land prices go up over time. It is the same the world over. WORKING IN THE PHILIPPINES I have never gone into this but as far as I know if you are working for an International Company there are permits required through Immigration. If you are living here and somehow find a job you will have to compete with local labour...

MY PERSPECTIVE OF BARANAGY LIVING IN THE TACLOBAN AREA INTRODUCTION When I meet foreigners visiting the Tacloban area many conversations similar. They have met a Filipina and are looking to settle here and live in a barangay. These foreigners are in love and I can fully understand where they coming from. During the conversations I find it hard to say anything negative as this person is on top of the world and has great plans. This article is about explaining how life really is living in a barangay (village) setting. There are positives and negatives to this life style. Talking to foreigners planning to settle locally The talk or chatter to foreigners wishing to settle here revolves around buying land, building a house and a new life. I never try to influence just give my opinion and answers to the questions. How big is your house and what did it cost to build? Can I own land here “ NO ”? It is hard to answer as land and building costs vary from province to province. To b...

Storm Surges from Typhoons in the Philippines Introduction A storm surge a coastal flood associated with typhoons. There are different things that effect the severity of the storm surge. These can include the shallowness and the orientation of the body of water to the storm path. There is more science involved but a typhoon with strong winds simply pushes the water to the shore and causes flooding. Large waves are formed by the strong winds. As these waves break, the water moving towards a beach may exceed twice the wave height before the wave actually breaks. As these waves break, the water particles moving toward the shore have considerable momentum and may run up a sloping beach to an elevation above the mean water line which may exceed twice the wave height before breaking. Typhoon Yolanda (International name Haiyan) was one of the largest storms to make land fall in history. The storm surge in the Tacloban area was huge. The size of the storm surge was not anticipa...

What is the rate of pay for the Mayweather McGregor Fight? Money earnt –the mind boggles (Australian slang) It is anticipated Mayweather will earn in access of $100 M US. Let’s round off the 10 th round to 30 minutes. So Mayweather during this fight was earning approximately $3.4 M US every minute or $56,000 US / second.   For our Filipino readers that is 170,000,000 peso a minute or 2,800,000 peso every second. This is what the public were willing to pay and now this event is part of history. It is hard to believe but if the world wide public wants a sporting event and now with pay per view these large amounts of money are possible. What will be the next event in sports to generate this amount of money is unknown but it will happen? Connor McGregor Mayweather Fight-from our Barangay outside Tacloban One could say I was tossing the coin to see whether I would pay the sum of 950 peso ($19US) to see this fight live. As mentioned in previous blogs I have no hesitatio...

Introduction In the Philippines if you are married and family are close by then when there is an event like a birthday or other celebration then they will have a party. Being a foreigner the thought is he must be rich but this is not the case A family member is having a birthday and relatives are aware. Now in Australia a normal birthday as I can remember when I was young is a simple party at home with direct family (except for your 21 st ,(a .big event). Most families in the Philippines are large. So there will be many relatives. It is virtually a snow ball effect. In this instance we are looking at 60 people in total which in western society would be a reasonably big party for a working class person. Filipinos love to eat and I don’t think you will ever get an argument in that regard. The idea and information is to put on a party at a reasonable cost and still keep everyone happy Where are we going to have the party? I go to a small Philippine beach style resort where...

introduction On July 06 2017 around 4pm the power goes off. Brown outs are quite common but this time I could feel the house moving slightly. I thought ok a slight tremor but then thought how far away is the epicenter. An earthquake of 6.5 had happened in southern Leyte with a number of casualties which was so sad. With this tremor in the Dulag area 34 km from Tacloban     was only slight due to the distance from the epicenter so there should be no need for worry but that is not the case. This barangay is 4km inland from the sea and only a few meters above sea level. With every earthquake or tremor all should be aware of the possibility of a Tsunami. In this instance there was no tsunami alert given by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. In this barangay the cell phone signal is not good. When the brown out occurred due to the earthquake in southern Leyte we immediately started our generator and started to watch news reports This was a bit of a wakeup call as ...

This blog is about Tacloban and surrounding areas. I am an Australian living in a barangay (village) in the Dulag Leyte area. I have been living in this Barangay for six years and know many of the local Filipino people living here. I am not rich but try and help whenever I can. Most people in this Barangay are poor but happy. Some are farmers, farm laborers or work in Dulag or Tacloban. Filipino people are proud and that pride is shown when Manny Pacquiao takes the world stage. This time Manny fights Jeff Horn of Australia to defend his World Welter Weight title in Brisbane Australia. I purchase the pay for view and set up our flat screen TV in the car port.   All Filipino people in this and other barangays were welcome to watch the fight at my house. It is not much but a gesture to allow the locals to see the fight live. It is not the same to watch a fight after you know the result   LOCALS FROM OUR BARANGAY COME TO SEE THE FIGHT ...