• Expat Retirement
• Overseas Retirement Information

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Now, what had all this to do with expats retiring in the Philippines?

Everything.

Infrastructure is extremely poor and while foreign currency goes very far, the retiree can expect shortages of practically everything. It is not a good place for retirees with families and wives generally find conditions intolerable. Everyday life, even with domestic help, is a constant struggle for mobility, provisions, power, and competent services. The government is extremely bureaucratic and getting even simplest tasks done can be a nightmare as the pecking order in Filipino society is second to none in Asia.

Metro Manila is squalid and air pollution levels are impossibly high. High security is a must even in the few so-called better residential areas. Filipino law is arbitrary at best. Rules do not apply to the wealthy and court decisions take ages. Corruption is endemic and runs from the president down to the lowest bararzgcry (neighborhood) leader. Treasuries are pilfered regularly, just as the country's first American Commonwealth President, Manuel Queson, did starting in 1934. Privately, America was more than happy to leave the Philippines.

Is there a bright side?
Definitely, yes. For single male retirees, and for living well outside larger urban areas. The Visayas, those many thousand islands in the middle of the archipelago, are positively delightful and have some of the most beautiful islands and beaches in the world.
Naturally, with all those islands, the coastal area of the Philippines is perhaps the largest in the world.

Travel and transportation will be slow, often circuitous, tiring, but inexpensive. With the right frame of mind, however, it can be enjoyable. Living is very inexpensive and the quality of living - providing one prefers the simpler life - is very good in such places. If you like to read, fish, and squander your time on brilliant mornings, beautiful seas, and glorious sunsets (as you've earned after working all those years), this is definitely the place.

There are many expat retirees in the islands. Good medical services are rare, however, and excellent services can only be had in Manila, and at just a few hospitals (St. Luke's, Makati Medical Center, etc.)

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