BC57

Your post hits the issues right on the head. You would think that any government would want a clean country concerning the garbage, etc..................... but not here. They may have tried to clean the Manila Bay but what about the rest of the country. The government is really missing point on not cleaning up their country. Look what happened with Boracay, the business owners trashed their own island so the President had to close it down until it was cleaned up.🙁

The stress free lifestyle that I enjoy here can't be replaced by living in the US. Nor could I retire at 61 in the US and stay there with the cost of most things. We built a 3bdr 2 bath house on a 400 sq meter lot in the PH before moving here permanently. No mortgage or rent, yahoo! I couldn't have built a house in the US or bought a lot. For the most part people here are friendlier and they treat me great. I like the large family gatherings which are always enjoyable. With the exception of a few barking dogs our area is quiet. It's on a dirt road which is a dead end so we don't get a lot a traffic which is great. My mother-in-law's home is on one of the busiest streets in the city. So much noise and exhaust, yuck. Cable/satellite tv is so much cheaper here than compared to the US. Now as for the government agencies, wow, they need some better technology and process things a lot faster. Less paper is a good thing. Less redundancy would be even better. They are so far behind most of the world in technology and processes, not sure why. Police force doesn't have enough on staff to properly police the city to do enforcements, etc......... Oh, one thing that I dislike the most is all of the loose dogs, my God. They need to change that. We have a dog here but he is never off of our property and never will be.

We have two Voda's in two bathrooms and so far so good. No problems at all. We only plug them in when we use them.

We just got a new Pizza Hut in our city and it is way better than Greenwich. We use to have a Shakeys but it was so bad they closed it. It was nothing like the Shakeys in the US.

October has definitely been earthquake month. I lived in Sou Cal my whole life and never experienced this many quakes in one month. I moved to Koronadal City last November, but October hasn't been nice. So far our house that is about five years old has stood up to these quakes. Stay safe everyone.

Filipinos definitely panic when there is a earthquake, even minor ones. I lived is Southern California my whole life so it's not a big deal for me at all. My wife ran so fast out the front door she almost ran right over her mom. Of course when I told her this she was in complete denial, lol. I wish I had a video of her reaction to the quake. She stayed outside for about an hour until the power came back on.

I live in Koronadal which is in the southern part of Mindanao and it shook the hell out of our house, but we didn't have any damage. The quake came out of nowhere and shook hard from start to finish. Usually you can feel a minor rumble then it gets stronger but this one didn't waste anytime. We lost power for about an hour just after the first quake stopped. There was a second minor quake which is normal after the first one.

Mike, thanks for posting that info about receiving our deposits on the 3rd when living a foreign country. I missed it when you posted that until OnMyWay pointed that out. Thanks again.

I just confirmed with my caseworker at the embassy that our payments do arrive on the 3rd every month. Thanks again for pointing that out.

Thanks for the info. Never heard that we get our deposits on the 3rd because we are in a foreign country. I'll confirm this though with my case worker at the embassy.

The SS calendar says that people that get both SS and SSI get paid on the 3rd. For those that get SS get paid according to their birthdays. Mine Bday is between the 21st and 31st so I get paid on the fourth Wednesday of every month. I was curious if our deposits are delayed a day or two because they are international direct deposit. Hopefully the deposit hits the bank in the afternoon since we are about 12 hours ahead of the east coast. I heard that BPI post our deposits the same day as in the US, but I'm not sure about Landbank.

Already applied, and they sent me a letter to open a bank account which I already did. I know when I get paid by the SS benefit calendar which is the last Wednesday of every month, but I wanted to know how fast the direct deposits land in the Philippine bank since it goes to a foreign country. Hopefully it's the same day.

I asked Landbank but they have no idea. I guess I'll find out in late November as that is my first payment. Thanks for the response.

I'm a resident now and completely moved from the US last November. We built a house here so I'm not going anywhere. Many expats have their SS benefits direct deposited in a PH bank.

Hi, I just opened a peso account for my social security direct deposit and found your post when I did a Landbank search. Do you know if the SS direct deposits arrive the same day as in the US? Hopefully they arrive in the afternoons here in the PH since there is a 12hr time difference. Thanks in advance.