Santa Ana Church, Molo, Iloilo City
My wife and I have chosen the Philippines as our retirement home. We spent several months in Cebu City and two weeks in Dumaguete. We were trying to be systematic about looking at various places before we settled down. While we found much to like in Cebu City, for us the disadvantages outweighed the advantages. Despite friendly people, top-notch medical care, shopping, pretty subdivisions in the surrounding hills, we found the worsening air pollution, traffic congestion and escalating prices hard to live with and likely to get worse. So, we decided to look at some of the smaller Visayan cities; in particular Bacolod and Iloilo and to spend more time in beautiful Dumaguete. Our plan was derailed in Iloilo. We were planning to stay in Iloilo City just for a month and then to move on to Bacolod. We ended up staying in Iloilo City for more than two years. Our future in Iloilo was sealed when bought a property and built a house outside of Iloilo City, in the pretty seaside town of Tigbauan, about one-half hour west of the city proper. Iloilo City will continue to be our main center for shopping, medical care, dining and other urban amenities and necessities. We’ve posted an extensive account of our house building experiences.
We’ve been pleased with Iloilo. The people are its treasure. Medical care seems fairly good and educational opportunities are extensive. In fact, Iloilo’s only real industry seems to be education. Thousands of doctors, nurses and seamen are trained every year. There are some decent restaurants, and you seem to be able to find and buy whatever you need at the markets, numerous malls or the downtown commercial area. The city is fairly compact, easy to get around.
Alubihod Beach, Guimaras Island
Although we find much to like about Iloilo City, we are not enamored of Philippine cities in general. Most are conglomerations of concrete buildings, a tangle of power lines, and choked with traffic. The air is dirty with diesel fumes and you’ll be hopping over open sewers. They almost totally lacking in the trees, parks, bookstores, cycle paths and other charms of urban life elsewhere. They do have elaborate shopping centers which, along with upscale subdivisions, and chain restaurants, are safe, comforting, cool refuges from the realities of urban life in the Philippines.If you’d like to live outside the city, but still have easy access to it, Iloilo has some exceptionally nice small towns with pretty Spanish churches and plazas. We especially like Santa Barbara, Oton, Tigbauan, Miagao and San Joaquin. Life in the small towns can be a much bigger adjustment and is not for everyone. The culture shock is greater. You have to give up that is familiar and comforting; the shopping mall, the supermarket, the chain restaurants.
While we love living in the Philippines, we try to present a balanced view of the pluses and minuses of living in the Philippines. Be sure to read our short essay: “Reality Check: the Philippines – a tropical paradise for the retiree?”
You can explore further using the topics list on the left side of every page. Comments, criticisms and additional information are very welcome. Address to hammerslag@gmail.com or use the comment forms on most pages.
May 5, 2012 at 7:54 am
As an Iloilo resident of sorts, would you be able to advise me of the availability of hiring a 1500-2000+W petrol generator for a job? Thanks, Frank – email nationalfrank@yahoo.com
May 5, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Frank,
Unless you only need the generator for a day or a week, I’m sure you would be better off buying one than renting. You’ll likely be gouged on rental costs. I say this based on the rental prices I have seen quoted on cement mixers. See http://myphilippinelife.com/wiring-in-a-240v-backup-generator-in-a-swer-area/ for our experience in buying a generator. We paid P13,000 for a 3,200 watt unit. Consider buying and reselling when done with it.
Bob
April 8, 2012 at 7:55 am
I love your site but I must take issue with your statement that big cities in the Phils are devoid of trees or parks. I have been to the Philippines five times in the last twenty years always staying in Cebu City. There are trees and parks and I’ve never had trouble finding a shady spot to rest while sightseeing. Even in Manila we visited a park with trees.
January 29, 2012 at 9:10 pm
Hello Bob and Carol,
I still hear about NPA’s …should there be any worries about these people extorting funds from ordinary people? Or it has become a myth now?
February 11, 2012 at 3:18 pm
While there are many NPA on Panay Island, we live in an open flat agricultural area — not good terrain for NPA? I have friends who have run into NPA in the mountains. One was involved with medical missions. The other was mountain biking. Neither had a problem with the NPA they met. This is something to consider if you live in the more remote areas but I have not heard of NPA/foreigner problems here. I have read stories of foreigners being executed. One was the owner of a rice mill. I don’t think it’s NPA policy to harm well behaved foreigners but when you have guys with guns, anything is possible.
January 23, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Hi Bob.
A big thank you for this site. Having just about finished building our house in Miagao, I thought I’d quickly share our experiences of building in the Philippines.
Bureaucracy: firstly if you can make sure that the land you purchase has a mother title, whilst this is common sense an entire street in Miagao recently found out that they don’t have titles to the land they have been using for decades (this included a small shopping arcade as well) because the mother title was never transferred. in respect to planning permits we did it wrong, in that we had an architect produce a fencing permit some months before we did the house plans this cost us money, we also decided to build a buhay kubo (nipa hut) you also need a native house permit for that, we should have gone straight for the house permit and architects plans this would have covered the fencing and we could have had the native house permit thrown in.
The Date: We have discovered that most Filipino’s or OFW’s tend to build between Jan and April, this means that Material prices go up in late December, luckily we started building in October.
Building: we chose to use a builder (who employed his own crew) at 40% of material costs, initially people/friends thought this was on the high side, we have subsequently found out that this is about average (35% to 55%) seems to be the going rate. luckily for us our builder is very good and issues of foundations and placement of steel bars or poorly filled columns have not occurred (many thanks Bob for your detailed information about the pitfalls).
Money: We’ve on budget to spend about Php 1.3 million for a 135 square meter house (Architect estimated Php 1.9 million), I think this is exceptionally good value for money, we decided to spend more that originally budgeted on the Roof and Windows putting us about 150k over original budget, but this was money well spent, following Bob’s example we insulated our roof, initially our builder was not in favor of insulation, but our roofing contractor fitted the insulation and put up the support wiring for free.
In short you can build to a high standard and not spend the earth, the secret seems to be Know your material prices, Don’t be afraid to walk away from a supplier and Never accept the first price quoted (wait or ask for the best (cheapest) price.
Bob, Once again thanks for your site.
February 2, 2012 at 9:45 am
Edward,
Thanks for your very informative post! It’s very interesting that you built your house for about one-half of what ours cost us, even though our labor costs were lower and we had no builder to pay — only Valium for me haha. I did shop for materials but at every, every decision point I opted for better, bigger, stronger. I could not stop myself even though I knew it was not always rational. Also my engineer knew we wanted a “strong” house so she upped the specs. It’s questionable as to whether this really gained us too much and in some cases I really went overboard, for example using all 3.5mm electrical wire for lighting circuits where 2.0mm would have been just as good. Stainless steel hinges, Panasonic outlets, and so on — it all adds up.
Anyway our house is done and we love living in it and hope it’s the same for you. By the way, we really like the Miagao’s public market. We often go there despite the fact that Tigbauan market is walking distance. I bought lobster in Miagao for P150 per kilo. Love it!
Regards,
Bob
February 8, 2012 at 5:22 am
Hi Ed,
Looks like, I will consider,in my planning for retirement to start building the house in the month of October, thus allowing for the rough structure/roof being up before the rainy season in the next year. Just wondering how big a difference there might be in the cost if you would have built your home in, say 40 km North of Manila. Your estimate came to about 10,000 PHP/Sq.M. which is a very good price. In central Luzon we were quoted, by an architect as much as 22K. He said that he “didn’t want to get reach very quickly”, to charge us to much, but after carefull calculation, I couldn’t find/account for about 2.5M on the house about 230 sq.m. We have decided that we will buy the material and have the builder construct it for us. I asked, below, if anyone had an experience with so-called panel type construction, which suppose to reduce the construction time and thus a cost by about 30%. There was no response to my quetsion. Anyone know, have any experience?
Note to Bob:
Always anjoy coming back to your blog for fresh news and ideas.
Regards,
February 19, 2012 at 10:04 am
Jan
Panel type construction is more advisable for big developments (condos, malls, etc.). It could easily up the cost in residential construction though. A typical slab measuring 3′x8′x4″ weighs about half a ton, which means your builder should have a crane.
Ten thousand pesos per square meter is a very conservative pricing for a ‘barely finished’ house—no paint, no tiles, no cosmetics. A more realistic estimate is around P17k-P25k, depending on types of finishes, assuming that you’re planning to construct a reinforced concrete house.
February 21, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Architect Keith D. Cameña. I agree with your cost estimates and also recommend your very interesting blog site to our readers. While we don’t have any personal experience with this architect, if we needed one we’d check him out!
February 23, 2012 at 6:22 am
The panels are not a solid concrete rather two hardyboards separated by spacers creating a space for 4″ or 6″ wall thickness. Once the series of panels ( 120 mm W x 370 mmH) are erected as walls, by several persons (no need for crane), and the reinforcement is placed vertically and horizontally, the concrete is pumped into the space. The finish of the interior and exterior is ready to be primed and painted. I have not seen it personally, only pictures, but my wife will be visiting the factory in Carmona to see the quality and some projects that were supposedly constructed nearby. The underground piping and conduits are installed first while footings and the slab is constructed after that, creating clean working space for panels installation. The entire first floor panels are placed before concrete is pumped into them. You may have heard of the company, if you are interested I can send you their name, and I would value anyones opinion on their workmanship and quality.
April 2, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Hi Jan
I also had thoughts about the new solid concrete pre-fab builds that are being offered for housing nowadays, in the end I went for the traditional construction method (hollow bricks) on the grounds that familiar building methods would be easier (and cheaper) to the builder, our architect originally costed the build to 1.9m pesos, after some pointed words about his pricing of components he then reduced his pricing to 1.3m for a larger house design, our builder still thought the price was too high, in the end we took a gamble and went with our builders estimates, keeping the design very simple and single floored helped with our budget, we were also lucky with our roofing contractor who charged only 12% for labour (job lot for windows and roof)
April 14, 2012 at 7:03 am
Hi Ed,
Thank you for your comment. My wife visited the company at the end of March, along with our future master carpenter (MC), just to be sure if the materials, etc. are compatible by quality, cost, and workmanship, as they claim. The estimate that we received from them was about PHP 750K for panels only. The house will be 1-1/2 storey and when added the concrete core to be placed in the panels, footings, slab, etc. the price came very close to a conventional construction by CHB (nearly 2M). If one considers inexperienced helpers with MC, which adds to the cost of labor, the CHB seems more economical. Our design is complete for conventional method, and I believe we can have it built very competitively. It may take a little longer, but with good crew we should be OK. I have been calculating, recalculating, trying to fit it in a reasonable budget, but I guess we just need to cross the bridge and do it. We will be watching for all pittfalls mentioned by Bob, and try to avoid them. I just have to learn to bite into my tonque.
Thank you all for your comments, and once we build it, you all will be welcomed to come, stay and enjoy it with us.
Jan
January 21, 2012 at 3:53 am
Hi,
I’m a student, and it is really hard to find good info about the Philippines. This is a really good site and it is really useful and interesting. If you could, could you post something about schools there, I’ve been pondering it for ages now.
Thanks again Bob and Carol,
Susy-Terra
January 16, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Hi Bob,
I saw your site while looking for Iloilo resources. I am going to iloilo this Saturday for the Dinagyang Festival 2012. It was nice to know and see people from all over the world retiring here in the Philippines. It is my goal to promote the Philippines in my own small way thru our site, Philippine Travel Photos (www.philtravelphotos.com). You can check it out.
And I would like to invite you and your wife to an email interview for the site, if you don’t mind.
I hope to have a favorable response from you and if you will allow the interview, you can send your personal email for a formal invitation in my email.
Thank you for choosing Philippines as your 2nd home.
Mabuhay!
LAR
February 2, 2012 at 5:13 am
Sorry for the late reply. I was out of the country during Dinagyang.
January 11, 2012 at 5:26 am
Hi Bob,
I read the blog from time to time, now more frequently than before because my retirement day is coming closer and closer (720 calendar days)–not fast enough. I believe last year someone expressed the interest to build their house by utilizing “sterling developmend and construction” company’s panel walls instead of CHB. I wonder if anyone else has an experience with this type of construction. Their page shows the methodology and quality, but there is no feedback from the customers. If any of your readers have experience, good or bad, it would be nice to read about it in your blog. Still planning to build in Bulacan, and I assume that I will need to start about 10-12 months before retirement.
Jan
January 2, 2012 at 11:29 am
Hi Bob and Carol,
I would like to know about bank borrowing for building or purchasing a home, do banks loan at at what kind of rates? I am married to a Filipina and i will have approx 5,000 us income a month when i retire there in about 10 years. I may wish to purchase sooner than wait 10 years.
Terry
January 5, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Terry,
$5,000 per month should allow you to live very nicely. For the most part, mainstream Philippine bankers are conservative in their lending practices to ordinary folk. Expect that a substantial down payment will be required and interest rates will be much higher than those in the US. It’s hard to predict if real estate prices will be higher in five or ten years. Places like Cebu City have been booming. Iloilo is more restrained. Maybe wait a few years to see if there is a Philippine real estate bust.
Bob and Carol
January 8, 2012 at 3:59 am
Happy New Year Bob and Carol! Cost of residential land in the Philippines is not coming down. In Antipolo, Rizal it’s slighly going up. In my hometown of Miagao, Iloilo some farmlands outside the poblacion are going for 1000 pesos per square meter, while lots inside the town proper are around 3000 pesos per sq. meter.
Terry, if you want to build a house in the Philippines now for your yearly vacation, it might be advantageous for you to obtain a home equity loan from U.S. and pay everything cash. As Bob is saying U.S. interest rate is much lower, plus you can deduct that interest from your income tax. Happy New Year!
December 15, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Having spent most of my life in Zamboanga City, Mindanao, am looking forward to settle down in my hometown – TIGBAUAN – after my compulsary retirement from gov’t service early of 2012.
November 10, 2011 at 11:34 am
Hi Bob,
Maybe I am just missing it but on your home page here, I can’t find a list of articles by date. How can I see if there are any new articles without going through the list of categories one at a time, which would take a long time?
November 12, 2011 at 8:47 am
Lance, good suggestion. I used to have a “recent posts” section. I will be sure to reinstate it. Thanks again for the suggestion.
Bob
October 14, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Hey Bob, just wanted to see how you and Carol did throught the storm. Hope all is well with the two of you and your house did good as well. Have a great day.
Bill
October 22, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Hi Bill,
We have weathered all the typhoons pretty well. In the worst case the water built up inside our perimeter walls, like a 1,500 square meter swimming pool, but when it gets to the level of our two big gates, it goes out under the gates. It never threatened the house.
Thanks!
Bob and Carol
September 21, 2011 at 11:17 pm
These are only some of the reasons why I love my country, Philippines. It is rich in natural resources and beautiful people. I’ve been to Guimaras, I stayed there for almost one month and I never wanted to go back home because it already feels like home. I will come back there. I love Philippines.
June 27, 2011 at 3:54 am
Hi Bob and Carol,
I hope you can restore the planning and construction of your building pictures its very informative and I use to refer my project with your presentation that way i have an idea to present to my carpenters and builders the way I want . Thank you for sharing the experience its a great resouce of information like me who is currenly having a project it surely helps a lot.
June 27, 2011 at 7:13 am
Yes, we’re sorry it happened. We’re working on data restoration every day.
June 26, 2011 at 9:22 am
Hi, Bob & Carol
We’re very sorry to hear about your recent experience w/ hackers. Interestingly, your predicament is also one of this week’s feature in TIME: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2079423,00.html
It’s quite disheartening and makes me speechless (grrrr!) that these folks would hit everyone – even mom-and-pop variety sites like yours that simply and generously provide priceless information out there – pro bono.
Let us know if regular readers like us need to open our wallets for you to be able to invest in a better firewall, thicker than the walls of our town Miag-ao’s fortress-church!
On the other hand, as the article underscored, even big companies and government agencies are prone to attacks, so this is like all of us helplessly waiting to become the next victim.
Ouch!
June 26, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Hi Sal,
Thanks for your kind impulses. The problem was not my firewall, it was more that we started the blog not knowing much about the technical aspects. We did not upgrade our blogging software (WordPress) and we used a shared server which is inherently insecure. But, even the most security conscious bloggers are attacked. The only thing we can do is make lots of backups so that if we are hit we can restore it. After all if big corporations (Citibank and Sony for example, and government agencies can’t protect themselves how can we. The problem is definitely getting worse. If you’re interested, I recommend http://krebsonsecurity.com
June 25, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Bob & Carol
Welcome back!
Good to see you back on the web again.
More power to you and your site. Very informative and well written.
Mario
June 25, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Thanks Mario. It’s good to be back on the road to website recovery and very good to hear such nice comments!
Bob and Carol
June 22, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Hi, I was a fan of the old site. I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know (if you didn’t already) that the images on a lot of the posts aren’t embedded, for example, no photos on this post:
http://myphilippinelife.com/iloilo-city-to-boracay-via-antique-province/
June 22, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Oh yes, we’re painfully aware of that and are working every day to restore the site. It was hacked with injected spam. Google notified us and dropped us from their searches. We started the blog with practically no knowledge of technical issues. Now we are learning. I made a mistake in updating the SQL database. It broke all the photo links. Thankfully we have all the content. Thanks for your patience.. and kind words.
Bob and Carol
June 20, 2011 at 4:04 am
Happy Father’s Day to all Dads or Tatays!!!
June 18, 2011 at 8:39 pm
link to image paths doesn’t work. possibly relative path from old site isn’t . / wp-content/uploads/?
http://myphilippinelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dscf1741.jpg
June 18, 2011 at 11:07 am
Welcome back Bob !!! It’s great to hear from you again !
June 18, 2011 at 11:13 am
Hi Jim,
Thanks! I’m working to restore the photos, then the “old” site will be fully restored. I’m editing some of the old posts as I go but I’m looking forward to posting new content — not just the old stuff.
Regards,
Bob
June 17, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Good to see you back up and running Bob.
June 17, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Thanks Bill! Everything is pretty much back up except for the photos which accompany the articles. I have all the photos but they need to be manually linked to the proper post. I’m making progress.
June 13, 2011 at 11:40 am
Bob and Carol, Happy to have you back online. Keep that firewall working. (-: Ron
June 13, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Thanks Ron. It’s good to be back. I’m so lucky that I made a backup. I would really be crying if all the content was lost. We still have a lot to do on the site, such as restoring the photos. We have stepped up security as much as we can. Bob and Carol
April 7, 2011 at 4:49 am
Hello Bob,
.
My wife and I own a home just outside of Oton . In fact I make a point of buying the best peanut butter I’ve ever tasted from someone out of Tigbauan.
We have come across your blog as we are in process of replacing the flat roof on our house with a peaked roof. As I know almost nothing about construction your blog has been very informative yet daunting.
In reading your articles I feel a bit like my dad who used to tell the story of how as a young farm boy he went into the big city to take a short course on how to raise chickens. When he returned back to the farm he decided that he didn’t knew anything about raising chickens and so slaughtered his whole flock!! Perhaps we should just sell and move
So far the biggest issue has been trying to find someone whom we feel confident in doing the job. Unlike in the US not everybody has ready access to email and certainly almost nobody has a website. In addition most Filipinos have cell phones and the connection is always dubious when trying to contact them from the states. Originally the project was going to be supervised by my wife’s brother as we are now in the US and would like the project to be complete by the time we come to the Philippines for Christmas but I am now having second thoughts.
The couple of price estimates we have had, have been little more than basis costs with no details as to the type of materials or quality of materials they plan on using. There has been no mention of building permits or building codes.
I think we must be going about this the wrong way. Since we are only putting on a new roof and not building a whole house should be still be talking to an architect- builder or should be be trying to contact a civil engineer or just hiring a building foreman. Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.
Your articles and photos are so informative that I feel like just telling a builder to read your site and built the roof exactly like that!! Thanks for a great site.
Kurt
December 13, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Congratulations Bob and Carol! You finally moved into your new house. Looks amazing!
We did’t have a chance to visit you when we were there last summer but we will be home again this January 2011. This time it will be a little longer stay so we might have a chance to visit you and Carol in your new home.
Take care,
Angie and Carlos
November 21, 2010 at 3:30 pm
I’m finaly in Iloilo City, after five years.
It’s always a shock cause we started our trip from Québec, where it was 0 degree. My god! It’s so hot here.
As usual, I rent a room at Midtown, cause it’s cheap and so close from everything.
Because I consulted so often your website, I already made an appointment with doctor Ramirez, the dentist. She asked Zenaida who recommended her name and my wife just said: It’s this amerian man called Bob and she said: Oh! I know this Bob…
Already two weeks passed between Iloilo City and Tigkalayo Guimaras, to see the family. We still have one week and we will try to get some rest, before we go back in our dear snowy Québec City.
Maybe next time Bob & carol
November 21, 2010 at 5:24 am
Hello Bob & Carol,
I found your site and had read all the comments.I am so glad to find such a website.We are retiring in Iloilo this year.We have a house in Janiuay,Iloilo,A sister- in- law lives there w/ her son while we live here in Vegas.We have a lot in a subdivision called Savannah.We may have to build a house there as the place is nearer to the city.Thanks for M& M for giving the name of an honest Eng.,I might call him when the plan materialize,that kind of a person we need,you were right,you know people there thinks of the dollar only not how it ‘s obtained.I gained a lot of info and enjoy reading all the comments,the pluses and the minuses of living in P.I.Will keep in touch.
November 16, 2010 at 1:40 am
Bob & Carol: Congratulations on moving into your new home in Tigbauan. You must be overjoyed to be finally in.
I wanted to thank you for the info you sent us earlier about the Magic Jacxk, we sent one home with a friend who was travelling to Phils recently and it works just great. Our phone bill has no dropped from over $400 CADS/month to almost ZERO
We are planning on visiting for 6 weeks this coming March and my husband is madly budgeting for our permanent move in late 2011 or early 2012. He read today that the major gasoline companies have announced increases at the pumps for regular gas. I know I’m asking a lot but could ypou give us an idea of gas prices at the pump in the recent few days?
I appreciate you help.
Roselyn
November 14, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Big congratulations on moving in, Bob and Carol from the crew at http://www.philfaqs.com. i send people with “build a house in the Philippines” questions here often, because no one has done it better in the 11 years I’ve been associated with living here in the Philippines.
BTW, for the person with the MagicLack question? Magicjack seems to work fine here in the Philippines, but there’s no question in my mind that it is far superior to sign up for Vonage before you come, and bring your Vonage router with you. (PS, I don’t use either product, so that’s an opinion that’s totally unbiased.
November 13, 2010 at 11:00 am
Hi Bob,
I’ll be visiting Iloilo and Sibalom at the end of the year. Hope to stop by this time and check out your house project.
All the best,
Pat
November 9, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Hello,
I have traveled to Iloilo twice now and I have found it to be truly amazing. I have finally found a place to retire now (20 + years). Anyways, I’m glad most people have found this website to be fabulous. Although I am from Hawaii, I do have roots back to the Philippines. I have been to Manila and Bacolod and I really like this city.
Sir, how is life in Iloilo City? I know brownouts can be a common occurence. Is there any standy power ready?
By the way, I love riding the jeepneys.
SA
November 10, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Power outages can be a daily occurrence. Many businesses have backup generators. Mostly the outages are fairly short, one to three hours but you have to be prepared for longer ones. We plan to have a small generator to power our refrigerator and a few lights.
I miss the Iloilo City jeeps but I don’t like riding the ones further out — such as Tigbauan, Miagao, San Joaquin. They are packed and driven too recklessly.
September 29, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Your site is fantastic and a very useful resource. My husband and I built our home in UPV Village, Iloilo to years ago in preparation for our retirement in 2 years time and we can’;t wait to get there. Currently my mom and a brother and sister live in the home. We are wondering if anyone has had any experience with MagicJack for telephone communications between Phils and Canada or the US for that matter?
Best Wishes.
September 16, 2010 at 1:34 am
Just discovered your site. Realistic description of life in the Philippines. I was born in Iloilo and immigrated to US when I was 25 years old. I am retired now and spend six months in Marinduque and six months in California, but still consider Iloilo my land of birth. My town is Barotac Viejo, that is Northern Iloilo, but I have been to Tigbawan, and Miagao for a visit. Cheers and Have a Good Day.
Speaking of beef in the Philippines, my wife always used the pressure cooker otherwise it is hard and almost not edible.
September 5, 2010 at 4:20 am
Magandang umaga po Bob & Carol
After almost 5 years, Zeny and I will be back soon in Iloilo for three weeks. Believe me, we’re looking forward to be there to feel the city and to see how it changed in the last five years.
Is it possible for you to give me the phone number and the e-mail address of Doctor Ramirez, your dentist? We would like to have an appointment as we will be there.
We will stay at the Midtown Hotel as usual.
I wish I can bring you those Baggels and Smoked meat from Montreal or a nice Camembert, but the trip will be very very long, before we arrive in Iloilo.
Ingat
G & Z
September 5, 2010 at 10:34 am
Anyway, thanks for thinking of our Montreal treats. Once our house is done, I’m going to experiment with making our own corned beef. Surprisingly, there are lots of cattle in our area and fresh beef at the Tigbauan market. It’s freshly killed and very tough but I want to learn how to use it. Dr. Ramirez’s office phone is 033-337-2220. You generally will not need an appointment. Have a good trip!
July 16, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Although my husband is still in the Army and I am still working hard we decided to build our dream home in La Union along the coastal. We both love the sound of the sea and cool breeze in humid sunny days. My older daughter is still in college, soon my younger will follow in 3 years, we spend some time each year in P.I. My husband migrated to the US when he was 9 yrs old, he’loves going back there.
June 28, 2010 at 8:49 am
Bob, are you on Facebook?
May 23, 2010 at 7:25 am
bob and carol,
thanks for all the information in your site! i’m an ilonggo who lived in the US for about 8 years, thailand 3 years and now china 3 years and counting. i’ve been to most of the places you’ve mentioned in your travels in panay (i was an avid backpacker when i was in college at UPV), and it’s always refreshing to read somebody’s account about familiar places and even people, at the cost of extreme homesickness. my wife is a caucasian american who was born and grew up in japan, and we’re both working at an international school in china right now. we’ve been to iloilo many many times, twice this past 5 months to see family, relax in boracay and my brother’s place in san dionisio, and we’ve always considered iloilo as one of our possible destinations to settle down someday. your account as a foreigner living in iloilo is a great blessing for us, as my wife (and i) know that she’ll always carry the “white girl married to a local” tag. ironically, she avoided going out with japanese guys when she was living in japan for that very reason. anyway, we’ll be visiting iloilo again in december. thanks again!
May 17, 2010 at 11:58 am
Greetings.
I just discovered your website/blog today and it is fascinating. I lived in Iloilo from 1988-1990 as a Peace Corps volunteer and married a Filipina. We have been married 20 years now and have one teenage son. We often talk about our future and wonder if life back in the Philippines is part of that. One thing that I always recall is a feeling of a lack of freedom. I love to walk, jog, excercise and go from place to place. I had a great time in the Philippines and exploring that country is always exciting. However, I experienced that as a Westerner, accustomed to “my private life and interests”, that way of life is very difficult to pursue in the Philippines. In fact, it is down right lonely if you try to. Have you folks had difficulty in adjusting from the individualism of American life to the more group emphasis in the Philippines and has it been difficult? Take care,
Erik
May 2, 2010 at 4:04 am
Bob,
I really appreciate the newsfeed because I can quickly see all your posts in reverse chron order.
Your homepage on Facebook offers two pulldowns for feeds, one for articles and one for comments. But both have the same URL: http://goiloilo/feed/! Is there a second URL for a feed of comments?
Kind regards,
Dan
October 17, 2011 at 4:52 am
Bob,
Just a follow-up to my previous post on newsfeeds. Http://myphilippinelife.com/feeds take you to the feed page, which is http://feeds.feedburner.com/myphilippinelife.com, and I was able to add that to my smartphone. Woohoo!
You might want to update your homepage link “Subscribe to MyPhilippine Life by RSS.” It is currently a circular reference to the homepage.
Kind regards,
Dan
April 11, 2010 at 7:50 am
Hi Bob,
A. Thanks for the interesting run-down on the roof system. In particular I am interested in knowing more about what you promised later .. ventilation systems. An average home in our area is a very good approximation of what one might build as a solar baking oven … large expanse of metal sheeting gathering in 12hours of intense solar energy with virtually no means of escape for the heat … there has to be a better way.
B. Regarding TRICARE providers. While it may speed things along to use a provider from the list, a TRICARE authorized person may use _ANY_ licensed provider in the Philippines. The TRICARE benefits contractor will then investigate and, if warranted, certify the new provider … that’s how most of the doctors on the list got on the list. My own family physician is TRICARE certified and didn’t even know it. Where many retired military have a problem is in looking for a doctor/hospital who will provide service charging only the TRICARE co-pay required and then do their own billing of TRICARE for the remainder. This seldom works well and has lead to a lot of heart aches and more than a few cases of fraud. In general the best way to handle TRICARE Standard … the ‘flavor’ that we have here in the Philippines, is just go to the doctor or hospital, pay the bill and submit for reimbursement to TRICARE yourself … you can even do it virtually for free by faxing in the claims.
C. For those who haven’t been to the Philippines, heed Dr. Mouer’s advice. Vacationing here for a week or two in a tourist hotel is _NOT_ living in the Philippines. Especially if you intend living in the provinces, better come here, rent a place for ‘real’ and eat from the market, deal with vendors, getting your phone and power turned on and all the other normal issues of life. Youcan’t learn it from a book or a blog.
December 25, 2011 at 1:01 am
i built a small house in the philippines in mindanoa.(approx 900 sqft).it has an arched galvano roof and built of hollow blocks.ive spent approx 6,000 u.s so far and it still needs the finishing touches.i never wanted to build a house there and have never been crazy about the idea.my wife there tricked me into it hahaha.the house for me has been a money pit even though i dont have that much into it.the biggest problem im having is that i am not even there most of the time.im stck back here in the u.s and things are not going well for me here.i am almost broke,56 years old and all my wife can do there in the philippines is cry about how the house needs to be finished.it will cost maybe another $3,000 to finish it making the total cost around $9,000 u.s.but will it ever really be finished.my wife sneakingly payed a little extra to have the contractor make it so that a second story could be added by making extra strong cross beams and extra columns.lets face it.these projects can go on forever if you let them.anyway,everyday i think about quiting this whole masqarade and calling it quits.i send her money every month and right now i have no guarantee that i will ever be able to go back there again.(maybe when im 62).but thats years from now.this whole thing has made me sick and caused me a lot of stress.im not happy here.what can i do.
December 30, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Kenneth,
All we can say is that things are unlikely to change so you have to decide if you, on balance, are happy with your marriage/relationship and its setting in Mindanao. If so, continue….. Good luck and best wishes.
Bob and Carol
March 22, 2010 at 11:17 am
Nice blog with pro & con discussions on living in the Philippines.
I have had the privilege to visit or live in over 23 countries and 200 cities worldwide — many of them third world countries, and some of them in Asia. My Philippine experience is on Mindanao where I lived for seven years. Those interested can check out my experience on my web site at
http://www.transcend7.com/Philippines.htm
I also relate my experience in immigrating my Filipina spouse to the US.
My take is that for former Filipinos, single men of any color, and for western men married to a Filipina, somewhere in Philippines is probably a great place to retire to. My experience is that the Filipina wife or girl friend decides where to live, and that’s usually where her family is, or where she wants to be. If she doesn’t like the place, she’ll make sure you aren’t going to be happy living there.
But most westerners, especially those who have never traveled outside the US, will not be able to adjust to living in a third world country. I especially think that western women will find themselves isolated in the Philippines, as they watch their western husband constantly tempted by very young, very pretty, and very aggressive Filipina girls who have their eye to oust and replace the western wife.
I lived 1 year in Butuan City and 6 years in Davao City, with my Filipina wife, who I met and married in Butuan City. She is what made my life so pleasant in the Philipines, and continues to make life pleasant here in the US. I could probably live anywhere on earth as long as she was there with me. but without her, or another like Filipina, I probably would not like the Philippines.
For those who have never traveled outside the US, and for those travelers who have never visited the Philippine, there are plenty of negatives, as there are everywhere I have been. So do yourself a favor if you are considering the Philippines — send some time there first — several weeks, if not months. Rent a place for a year or two before committing to buying or building. Once you sink money into the Philippines, you will play hell getting it back if you decide to leave. The same goes for moving from one part of the country to another — selling property in the Philippines is iffy and usually entails considerable loss of capital. Its not so fluid as it is in the US.
December 25, 2011 at 3:09 am
i have this as well as your other article online and i have to say that you have enlightened me more than anyone else.im refering to dr mouer.wow how great your articles are.i married a filipina 2 years ago and im not happy at all.i built a small house near the small town of cabadbaran in mindanoa(im sure you know where it is since you have lived near to it in butuan ).that was my wifes idea because thats where her family lives.i dont like where the house is located because there is nothing to do there and getting a ride is nearly impossible.the neigbors are a bunch of raging alcoholics and i never wanted to build a house there anyway.my wife tricked me into it.i spend most of my time here in the u.s and she resides in our home there.i will never bring her here to the u.s.that was never my intention.my intention was to someday retire to the philippines.the problem is,im 5 years away from that and meanwhile i am struugling financially to survive and have no idea when i will be able to return there.my wife drives me crazy with her jealousies and she loves to compare herself to some of her more fortunate friends that are married to rich white guys that are just fat teddy bears of men.im fed up with it all.this is not working for me.any advice please
March 11, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Ken Delancey — I just now saw your post.
My wife and I quarreled a lot during the first six months of our marriage — mostly over sex and money. I had all the money, and she controlled all the sex. But after six months we learned to accommodate each other better — I spent more money on her, and she responded with more sex. It also took us that long to align our purposes in life, which by then was the baby growing in her belly. This is just to let you know that no marriage comes easy, and we all have to work at it to make it work — negotiating for what we want, and making trade-offs.
Most of my wife’s family saw me as very high caste, and we didn’t really have much to talk about. Also, most of the men also drank heavily. But our Davao City subdivision was upper class, and many a college educated Filipino to interface with, as well as many expats and their Filipino wives.
My advice for you would be to keep your house where it is (your wife isn’t going to give it up), but talk her into having it as a vacation home, and move to a larger city where you can meet people more to your liking. You and your wife will have to negotiate this. I suspect she will have relatives spread all over the Philippines, so it won’t be as hard as it might appear.
I will tell you that all the best friends I had in the Philippines I met through my wife’s circle of friends — most of them Filipinas married to expats. She would invite them to our parties, and drag me to her friends parties. You can meet people on your own, but you are not going to meet many suitable to bring home.
Good luck. I hope you can find a way to make your marriage work. If it won’t work in the Philippines, it is even likely to work in the US.
March 19, 2010 at 9:21 am
Hello Bob and Carol,
My family and I are planning to spend our vacation in Iloilo this summer. We’re coming from the Baltimore, Washington area. I wonder if it’s ok for us to stop briefly at your place? I just don’t want to show up unexpectedly.
My best,
Ulysses
March 8, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Hello Bob & Carol
My wife and I love your blog. It has lots of very useful information. My wife is Filipina. She is from Sibonga, Cebu, one hour South of Cebu City. We are in the process of purchasing 2000 square meters of property in Argao, Cebu. We are currently living in the U.S. Our plan is to retire in five to seven years from now and move there. This would be early retirement for both of us, so we were thinking of starting a small business to supplement our income until full retirement benefits are available. My wife’s brother has a college degree in Business Management. We were thinking of utilizing his knowledge to get the business going while we are here in the States making money to finance the business start up. So it would be like a family business venture. Any suggestions on a business to start? Keep all the useful information coming, I’m sure we will be utilizing all of it when we get there.
Thanks,
Jon and Lorela
February 23, 2010 at 11:13 am
Hi Bob & Carol,
Have you posted the plans of you new house anywhere on your site? My Filipina wife & I currently live in Dumaguete, but later this year are moving to the Chocolate Hills in Bohol and will be building a house on about a 1,000 sq. mtrs of land she has there. Any design tips we can get are like gold to us.
Your site is great and gives heart to someone who knows nothing about building a house and is pretty nervous about it.
Thanks,
Gary & Irein
February 18, 2010 at 6:19 pm
We’ve removed an incendiary comment post by “Vivian” which we had previous approved. Vivian’s comments about problems in Iloilo and an accusation that was presenting a sanitized view of life in Iloilo was allowed because our impulse was not to hide from the criticism of our readers. Vivian’s post resulted in a welcome flurry of defense of . We are thankful for that. But others seemed to conclude that we were supporting “Vivian’s” views by allowing them on our site.
In any case, goiloilo is intended to share OUR experiences of life in Iloilo, not as a forum for others to promote their views or political opinions. Therefore, we have removed Vivian’s post and the follow-up comments which resulted from it.
Bob and Carol
February 18, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I haven’t visited Ilo-Ilo yet but it’s a great place that we are also proud of.
January 19, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Hello Bob!
Been reading some of your works online…
I’m inviting you for a meet of Iloilo-based bloggers this coming Dinagyang weekend. I’m not sure yet where but looks like we both have the same concern as about heritage sites in Iloilo.
Also, please do join our forum at Skyscrapercity to express your opinions and ideas.
Thanks and have a great day ahead!
November 27, 2009 at 9:31 am
Hello Bob,
After reading your article on Iloilo, my wife and I have decided to live in Iloilo City. She is a native of Pototan, just up the road from Iloilo City. I would like to talk to you about Iloilo city a little more. However, with limited space here would you be so kind as to send me you e-mail so we can continue this conversation via e-mail. Thansk so much.
Les
November 1, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Hi bob And Carol,
Though I’m a Scot invading what seems to be a North American blog I’d like to answer some of the questions that others have posted and you some of my views albeit from my experience in Bacolod.
I was able to install a 100 litre stainless steel tank without a tower but with a small ancillary tank and pump which topped up the primary one. The total fitted cost was only 23500 P and it was installed in only a few hours. The advantage with that kind of set up is that you do not waste water and have no need for an unsightly tower. I had no problems with water pressure after that type of system was installed.
Like one of your respondents I also like good wine and indeed did find a knowledgable wine merchant, however apart from chocolate for me a good cheese goes well with a red wine. Alas I couldn’t get decent cheese for any price. I once bought imported Swiss cheese and quite frankly it was like rubber so I ended up giving it to the chickens that were less fussy than me. Having spent most of my life in England my only real disappointment in The Philippines is the blandness of the food for spices seem to be frowned upon. When I got back to London after 4 months I told my partner who is a Filipino that I could murder a curry. She has lived in London for 8 years and her palate has morphed into mine.
With regards to healthcare I do not find it a problem for certainly in Bacolod, which has a population of only around 350,000 there are at least half a dozen excellent hospitals and no waiting list to see any consultant. For westerners the cost is very low. To give you an example I went to see an orthodontist at one of the top teaching hospitals in Bacolod for I had badly chipped my two upper front teeth by eating very hard nuts before I arrived in The Philippines. Anyway the dentist I saw was what we call Harley Street quality in London for he is also on The World Council Of Orthodontists so could really name his price, however in spite of spending 75 minutes rebuilding my teeth, he did a beautiful job, all it cost was the equivalent of $50.00. I am not kidding.
I even went to see a plastic surgeon and his consultation fee was only 500 P.
I hope that my little contribution helps other bloggers
Mike
November 1, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Hi bob And Carol,
Though I’m a Scot invading what seems to be a North American blog I’d like to answer some of the questions that others have posted and you some of my views albeit from my experience in Bacolod.
I was able to instal a 100 litre stainless steel tank without a tower but with a small ancillary tank and pump which topped up the primary one. The total fitted cost was only 23500 P and it was installed in only a few hours. The advantage with that kind of set up is that you do not waste water and have no need for an unsightly tower. I had no problems with water pressure after that type of system was installed.
Like one of your respondents I also like good wine and indeed did find a knowledgable wine merchant, however apart from chocolate for me a good cheese goes well with a red wine.
November 1, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Mike,
Thanks for your comments. Carol and I were planning on staying in Bacolod for several months as part of our exploration of Philippine retirement locations. We went from Cebu City (several months) Dumaguete to Iloilo City. Our next stop was to be Bacolod but we never made it. We found such a nice rental in Iloilo City that we just had no motivation to to leave. We stayed in the same apartment for more than two years.
While living in Iloilo City we did visit Bacolod for a short time. We were quite impressed. Bacolod is a newer city with good public spaces (plaza and parks), wide roads good museums. It seemed to have subdivisions that were high enough to avoid flooding. It has some restaurants better than anything in Iloilo. Finally, Negros Island itself seemed to have many natural attractions and places to explore.
We appreciate your comments. It’s easy for the grass to seem greener elsewhere. Iloilo has good health care, colleges and exceptionally decent honest, hard working people. It does not have the extreme socioeconomic divide that Bacolod has. Anyway, Iloilo and Bacolod are two places that should be on any retirees short list of medium sized cities to consider.
Regarding renting a three bedroom place with a garden, I’d guess P15,000 to P30,000. We have friends who rent a five bedroom house for P15,000. I have seen much more upscale P50,000 places that are rented to Korean professionals. It’s hard to give an estimate as expectations vary so much.
Bob and Carol
October 31, 2009 at 4:40 am
I have spent the last 4 months living in Bacolod, Negros Occidental having only recently returned.
Whilst Bacolod is extremely friendly for it is not called the City Of Smiles for nothing, I have decided that I would rather retire in Iloilo or Davao further south.
Bacolod also has the famous MassKara Festival in October which is not to be missed.
For me the big let down with Bacolod is the state of the roads for they are certainly of Third World standard due to the destruction by overloaded sugar lorries.
I am now looking to retire in The Philippines for three reasons. The climate, friendliness and the cost of living.
Does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to rent a nice property of no more than 3 bedrooms with a nice garden?