So, I am heading towards my May wedding and June move to Iloilo and am contemplating how I am going to stay in touch with the world. Here in Boston, I am addicted to talk radio, and so I am thinking of buying a short-wave radio and tuning into the BBC, the VOA, and other broadcasts while in the Philippines. (When in high school I used to listen to Radio Moscow - that's how I heard Soviet premier Andropov died.) Do any members have experience with short-wave in the PI? Is it worth getting a radio? Should I buy it here or there? Which place is cheaper? Any thoughts on brands or models?

My wife came here on a fiancé visa and then we were married here in the US. She has her Philippine passport and her permanent residency card. We travel back and for the about once a year. You always need a passport and to get back into the US you need your permanent residency card or a visa or the re-entry (parole) papers.

I spent the last 4 months in Olongapo and there are many retirees in this area. I don't know if it is proper to put another groups name here but if you want I can send you a couple of groups that almost all the retirees in the area play around on.

I have been buying the bonanza cards for internet from cebu but their service will discontinue starting april 1st. What other choice is there that provides unlimited dial up access?

an article from PDI about the Sierra Madre mountain (i came from a town sandwiched by this mountain range and RP's (asia's) largest fresh water lake) ...and similar places in RP...not only here beaches but forests...inhabited by vast numbers of endemic species and ""hombres peligrosos""

Philippine law on succession provides for compulsory heirs and legitime. This means that certain persons are mandated by law to be the heirs of the decedent and are entitled to a specific portion of his estate. The compulsory heirs are the surviving spouse, ascendants meaning parents or grandparents, descendants meaning children or grandchildren. In the latter two cases, the descendants exclude the ascendants and those nearest in degree exclude the others. In other words, where parents survive with grandparents, only the parents will inherit. Where only children survive with parents, the children will inherit to the exclusion of parents. Where the child predeceases both or one of the parents, the children of the predeceased child will inherit his share in their grandparent(s)' estates by representation. A compulsory heir can be deprived of his legitime only if the decedent had made a will and expressly disinherited him for any of the grounds specifically provided by law. When one dies single, with no parents or children, he has no compulsory heirs. He can give away by will his estate to anyone. However, if he does not make a will, his brothers and sisters, whether full or half blood, will inherit in equal shares. In the absence of any sibling, succession goes to the next degree of living relatives - grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. with those nearest in degree excluding the others. What is the legitime of a child? It is one half of the estate of the deceased parent. By way of a rough illustration, if a person has P10 million, without parent or spouse but with one child, he can make a will giving P5 million to his child and the other P5 million to charity or he can give all of it to his child. If he does not make a will, all the P10 million will go to his child upon his death. If he had no spouse nor child, legitimate or illegitimate, but his parents survive him, the parents are entitled to the whole estate and each parent gets half. He can make a will, however, limiting his parents to their legitime of one-fourth each while giving the other half to anyone. Supposing a widower with P10 million is survived by 10 children, and he left no will, each child gets an equal share of P1 million. Otherwise, if he had wanted, he could have made a will giving only P5 million to his 10 children who will then get P500,000 each and giving the other P5 million to anyone. If a man is survived by a wife and one legitimate child, the wife's legitime is one-fourth of the estate while that of the child is one-half. Just to illustrate, supposing he and his wife accumulated, during their marriage, properties worth P10 million at the time of his death, said P10 million is conjugal or community property, in which case, P5 million is the wife's share while the other P5 million will comprise his estate. Out of P5 million estate, his child's legitime will be P2.5 million while his wife's will be P1.25 million. The remainder or P1.25 million is the free portion which he could give to charity by making a will. However, if he does not make a will then the sharing of the wife and child to the entire P5-million estate will be P3.5 million to the child and P1.5 million to the wife. If the heirs are 10 children and a spouse, and assuming the estate is worth P10 million, and there is no will, the P10 million will be divided among the children and spouse in equal shares or P10 million divided by 11 resulting in each getting P909,090.90. However, if the person with P10 million wants to dispose of his free portion, he should make a will limiting his children and wife to their legitime. The result is that one-half of the 10 million will be divided among the 10 children equally or P500,000 each while the wife will get P500,000 from the other half. The balance of P4.5 million is the free portion which the testator can give to any of the children, to his wife, and/or to charity. If he gives all of the free portion to just one child, then the result may be that one child gets P5 million composed of the entire free portion of P4.5 million plus his legitime of P500,000 while the rest of the children, including the wife gets only P500,000 each. This is the kind of situation that may lead to protracted litigation. Surely, the children getting only P500,000 each and/or the wife will contest the will. Their lawyers can use every reason to have the will invalidated or have the deceased declared insane. In the end, everybody may not be able to get anything since the P10 million may have to answer for legal fees or by the time the case is resolved the money has depreciated considerably. If a man has a wife and no child with her, but has illegitimate children the wife shall be entitled to one third, the illegitimate children to another third, while the remaining third of the estate is the free portion which he may dispose of as he wishes by making a will. An important provision of the law on succession is that an illegitimate child surviving with a legitimate child is entitled, by way of legitime, to only one/half of the legitime of the legitimate child. Supposing there is no surviving wife but there are five legitimate children and five illegitimate children, and the estate is valued at P10 million, how will the sharing be? Where there is no will, out of the P10 million, the five legitimate children will get P1.2 million each or a total of P6 million while the five illegitimate children will get P600,000 each or a total of P3 million. By way of a will, the five legitimate children may be given just their legitime of P1 million each or P5 million all in all, and the illegitimate children P500,000 each or P2.5 million all in all to be taken from the other half of the P10-million estate. The remainder of the free portion or P2.5 million may be given by the testator to anyone. In fact, he could give all of the free portion to the illegitimate children such that each will get an additional P500,000, thereby increasing an illegitimate child's share to equal that of a legitimate child. Where there are more illegitimate children than legitimate children, the legitime of the illegitimate children cannot exceed the free portion which in the above illustration is P5 million. For example, where there is only one legitimate child, he gets P5 million. If there are seven illegitimate children, theoretically each one should get one-half of the legitimate child's P5 million which is P2.5 million each. But since the total legitime of the illegitimate children should not exceed the free portion of P5 million, each illegitimate child will get only P714,285. The testator cannot diminish the legitime of P5 million of the legitimate child. Supposing the survivors are: the spouse, five legitimate children, and seven illegitimate children and assume that the estate is worth P10 million. One half or P5 million will be the legitime of the five legitimate children. The wife will get a share equal to one legitimate child, meaning she gets P1 million from the other half of P5 million. The free portion is now only P4 million. Since each illegitimate child is entitled to a legitime of only one-half of that of a legitimate child or P500,000 the total legitime of the seven illegitimate child will be P3.5 million. The balance of P500,000 is the net free portion that the testator can give to anyone by making a will. However, if there is no will, the P500,000 will also be divided among the said heirs with each of the five legitimate children and the spouse getting an amount double that of one illegitimate child. There are other provisions of law on legitime and numerous variations of the above rough illustrations. As it is, the foregoing is already very confusing to an ordinary person. But if it is any consolation, sometimes even lawyers have a hard time figuring out who gets what, particularly where the estate is composed not only of cash but real and personal properties whose values cannot easily be determined. In fact, most lawyers themselves concede that they are poor in math.

The same thing happened to my wife. It seems it makes a difference where you cal in the RP. We attempted to call Bulacan and it said we only had 35 minutes from the beginning but we were not able to get through. We then attempted to call Sampaloc and the recording said we had 50 minutes. I am still looking for a great deal on phone cards. I have been looking at most of the sites that have been requested on this board , but alot of them have hidden charges

Many thanks for postting your web site address on the site. I have visited it and printed off text pages. So far have only scan read but, from what I have seen it will be invaluable information to Gezel and myself both in sucuring a plot of land, budgeting and constructing a home. Are you reseptive to answering any question which may arise once i've read the text in detail? To all, I recommend anyone thinking of building in PI to visit iHenry's web site. Hopefully one day we will be able to post our experiences in building our home for the beniefit of others. The more information anyone wishing to build in PI has the better for all. Well done and many thanks again.

hello to everyone. 2 questions..where and who are some good dentists in tacloban or carigara.next my wife and i want to build a house on our land in guindapunan which is next to carigara in leyte. havent seen any sites to help me. we live in australia..should we bring designs from here?? any coments would be gratefully accepted. thanking you.

I have seen several articles similar to the following, over the past month or two. It looks to me like the problems with our calls are due to proposed higher rates on the PI end, and not on the USA end. Gene Philippines PLDT To Meet AT&T In Hong Kong To Discuss Call Rates Tuesday March 18, 2:17 am ET MANILA -(Dow Jones)- Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. said Tuesday it agreed to meet with AT&T Corp. in Hong Kong starting Wednesday to settle a dispute over new call termination fees. But PLDT spokesman Menardo Jimenez stressed the Philippine telecommunications company only agreed to the talks after AT&T recognized the right of PLDT to block calls from the U.S. long-distance carrier if no new agreement is reached. ""We made it very clear with AT&T officials that we must make the National Telecommunications Commission's directive that we can 'terminate service in the absence of any agreement' as the term of reference,"" Jimenez said. Of the six Philippine carriers invited by AT&T to meet in Hong Kong, PLDT is the only one to respond positively. While open to negotiations, other local carriers want the negotiations to be held in Manila instead. In its invitation last week, AT&T said it wants talks for new termination fees to be based on the order of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (News - Websites) that found Philippine carriers committed what it called anticompetitive practices to force U.S. carriers to agree to higher fees. The FCC ordered U.S. carriers not to pay termination fees, particularly to those found to have been blocking calls from U.S. companies. In response to the FCC order, the Philippines' National Telecommunications Commission ordered local carriers to block the calls of U.S. carriers that won't pay termination fees. Philippine carriers want termination fees - the amount paid by a foreign carrier to a local telephone company to handle calls from overseas - to be increased by as much as 50%, while AT&T is proposing a rate reduction in view of the lower cost of building telecom networks and the declining trend in call rates around the world. Other foreign carriers have already agreed to the rate increases proposed by the Philippine telephone companies.

Hi all, I'm lurking on this great site, getting lots of good info, thinking about retirement (1300 Euros/month). My Philippina fiance and I will be in the PR 03/30-04/01, staying in Manila (Tondo), maybe Angeles (Balibago), and Biri (Northern Samar). I would like to visit other places I've read about on this site. Are there any recommendable travel agencies, that arrange special tripps ? I'd be most grateful for any info, email off list, or contacts while in the PR.

COTABATO - Nine civilians and nine Muslim separatist guerrillas were killed Tuesday in two attacks launched by the rebels in the southern Philippines, the military said. Four civilians were also wounded in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacks, military officials said.

I have resolved on my next trip to bring practically nothing -- tee shirts, shorts and sandals, small digital camera, PDA and a book. I love my gear and gadgets (especially my new Titanium Powerbook!) but they can become a burden and distraction; carrying them, worrying about them or even playing with them instead of being out and about. The shopping centers in the major cities are huge and you can buy what you need, in many cases, more cheaply than here. Just my perspective!

There has been a lot of information posted regarding Prepaid Dial-uo ISP access (I know since I posted several myself). I was going to direct you to a Summary I compiled and posted to the 'Files' section of Yahoo LinP Group - but can no longer see the 'Files' facility an the left (the Photos has gone also). Perhaps the Moderators would be good enough to sort this out and make these files available again, so you can read this recent summary of mine.

I don't know if I'm stating the obvious here, but you seem to think it will be difficult to keep up with the world news here. Not so, with BBC, CNN and FoxNews and others on the cable networks. With internet of course you can get live radio, including Boston stations and dozens of talk radio channels. If you still want shortwave as well, you can likely get a good Asian unit cheaper here. There's also Radio Shack products. In print there's the Int. Herald Tribune, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal, although which of those are available in Iloilo I don't know. Anyway, I'm a news junkie, and I'm generally satisfied.

I am working on our File Folders. But you know how difficult Yahoo can be. When I (finally) get everything working correctly, I will let everyone know.

how about listening to your favorite talk radio via the internet. we live in escondido, ca in an area where we don't recieve any radio clear. so we listen on the internet.

I agree with you. I replied very much the same when Ken asked this question on the Letye Samar Biliran site. I personally don't like to be burdened with luggage if I know I have to change from taxi to boat to jeepney etc. Also, if your luggage isn't worth anything you don't care if it is lost.

Who may apply for Special Retiree's Resident Visa (SRRV)? A. Aliens or former Filipinos who are at least fifty years of age and who wish to stay in the Philippines. They must also deposit a minimum amount of $50,000.00 in a bank accredited by the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA). I have seen reference on this site to $75,000 as being the amount required. What is the correct amount? How long has this amount to be just left sitting in the bank? Or has it to stay there until you either die, leave or if you marry someone you can maybe change your status?

so this is all i need ha? i don't need to get a new passport but the philippine passport you mean? i see.

My wife Fe is from Mambaling on the Hwy (Verano Store). He have property in Lisa, Labangon, and will be building soon. We are looking for a good contractor or engineer to run the project for us, although we will be there to over look the building. Any ideas for us?

Yes dear you will need a passport of course and also your permanent residence card...I've been here in the U.S 10 years tomorrow and everytime I travelled I always bring my passport and my green card

I don't know about doubling the money in the Phils..If you invest something in the Phils do not expect to double your money in 2 years....We invested money in the Phils for years but we got nothing back til this time...Instead we losing all the money we're invested there....It is hard to invest money there,especially with your family...I don't know other people though....For me it is not wise to invest in the Phils,unless you got a lot of money.

When we went to the Phils last summer I brought my laptop with me..And I used globelines card to go online..The card is P280 I don;t know now if the price goes up.

i am from cebu. i think the floor area is not that big and too way espensive for such a house.

don't you know that prepaid cards cheats you with your time minutes? try to compute it after using and how much minutes remaining you have. i tried this myself, upon knowing i decided to call friends through the regular rate without using a card. i am not sure if you have the company ""THE NEIGHBORHOOD."" they are cheaper and check through the net to get a better deal on this company rather than at and t. for the neighborhood it is only .19 cents a minute calling international as in international.

just what i told to the other member here. cards are eating your money. not even satisfied with its exact time minutes used. hope you have read what i wrote bout the ""THE NEIGHBORHOOD"" COMPANY. .19 cents for international calls and unlimited calls for all domestic and state to state call. this is for the plan on the 50 dollars a month excluding the international calls.

when my fiancee (now my husband) visited me for the first time in the philippines, he had some shots taken. you should do the same, just to be sure. it is advisable.

Coming to Cebu City 1st wk in Apr. Can you recommend a moderately priced hotel for 2-3wk stay? Do you hang out anywhere? I'd like to meet some(all) of you who live there. Thanks,

i will let you know later who to contact for a good contractor as i don't know anyone by heart. sorry. but sure you can look at the yellow pages. don't worry i will ask friends back home who they can suggest. oh i remember now. i have a friend whose father is a contractor (a good one). she's here in america and i'll call her tonight so i can give you her father's home number there in cebu.

Does anyone think that if we (America) goes to war that this will affect the time-lines of processing for the K-1 and K-3 Visa's? I am asking because I just recently sent away my complete package for the K-1, unfortunately to Texas. Does anyone also think that maybe the U.S. Embassy in Manila will become even more strict about issueing final approval for these types of visa's if we are at war?

I've been doing some research for myself and some others who are interested in returning to the RP. Things I'm finding out: For anyone who married outside of the RP and plans to return there and make use of any privileges due from marriage to a Philippine citizen, (Balikbayan, 13A, etc.) it is a good idea to register your marriage with the Consulate having jurisdiction. Please note that the application goes to the Consulate where the event took place. If you have moved, it may be different from your residence. The Consulate will want triplicates. One will be returned to you as a marriage certificate, dated, stamped and signed by the Consul. One will be kept in their records. One will be sent to the Civil Registrar General in Manila. Fee for this service in the US is $25. It may also be useful to amend your spouse's passport to reflect her new name. This is also available through the Consulates. Authentications: In the requirements at the Bureau of Immigration, some documents need to be ""authenticated."" (divorce papers, police clearances, others) Again, if you are planning to go to the RP and apply there for 13A, etc., it is a good idea to obtain and have these documents authenticated before going. It may save you delays and hassles. The New York Consulate maintains a very informative website: http://philconsulateny.home.mindspring.com/ This is a good place to get general information. I""ve found, however, that local Consulate procedures may vary. To be sure, contact the Consulate with jurisdiction. Hope this is useful.

You mean Tisa,Labangon???? Just sold a land in Tisa,Labangon recently.. Hi Fe,so are you from Mambaling? I am from Mandaue and now living ni Chicago.

My Aunt in Seattle just finished her house in Lapu-Lapu..(Pacific Grand Villas)..And she knows a lot of good contractors..I will send her an e-mail today,and ask her if I could get her contractors..And able to give it to you...Good luck guys.