Is the Philippines a Dangerous Place?

[davewe]

"Dangerous" is one of those relative terms that you can quantify with stats but ultimately they're meaningless. If you've been robbed a place seems dangerous; if not it feels safe. The economy sucks if you're unemployed; it you have a great job the economy's pretty darn good. 

I am an old geezer and grew up in a neighborhood where no one locked their doors; God that sounds so weird and so long ago. One summer there was a series of robberies, everyone panicked and from then on all the doors got locked. 

My cousin was raped and murdered in her dorm room (upscale private college) another cousin was flashed in her upscale neighborhood.

I know of no one by a certain age who hasn't been a victim of crime. I hadn't had a break in for 20 years - until last year. Double locked all the doors and put in an alarm system. It's a nice neighborhood but there are no guarantees.

So is the Philippines dangerous? Yep. Can you mitigate the danger by acting safer? Yep. That should be the ultimate goal, not fooling yourself into thinking there are places without danger.

[Dave Hounddriver]

It was dangerous for my friend Henk.  Married a filipina 12 years ago (or so), had a son, bought property, she found someone else and ran away.  She came back recently and wanted money.  He did not give her enough, it seems, as he was recently killed by 2 men on a motorcycle.  Story here

http://biliranisland.com/blogs/2016/06/27/dutch-national-shot-dead-in-biliran/

[Larry45]

On 6/26/2016 at 5:19 PM, mogo51 said:

Larry, are you serious??  Go and tell the families of the kids who have been murdered whilst just going to school, or a shopping centre or whatever.  Ask them what they think of your 'statistics'.   

Mogo, I stated that school shootings (or any shootings) are horrible, and are indeed a tragedy.  My point was that the odds of it happening are much smaller than you might think.  Unfortunately the media and anti-gun lobby portrays these rare incidents as if they are common-place.   

 

And another foreigner gets killed.  Sorry to hear about your friend, Dave.  Seems as if he was well-liked.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

33 minutes ago, Larry45 said:

Sorry to hear about your friend, Dave.  Seems as if he was well-liked.  

Yes, he was well liked and respected but he was a 'businessman'.  By that I mean he was 74 years old and still buying and selling properties like he could take the money with him when he went.  Some people just can't retire.

 

Anyway, in this thread people are comparing the dangers in Philippines to dangers in other countries.  I have heard of husbands killing wives in North America.  It happens too often.  But in this country there are way more wives killing husbands than the other way around.  It happens way too often and the wives are seldom convicted or punished, which is probably why it happens so much.  I can only speak from my own personal observations but it seems to me that the male victims are usually warned by many of their friends before the deed is done but they never believe that the wife or ex will actually do it, until they are on their way to heaven.

[Larry45]

19 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Yes, he was well liked and respected but he was a 'businessman'.  By that I mean he was 74 years old and still buying and selling properties like he could take the money with him when he went.  Some people just can't retire.

 

.....they never believe that the wife or ex will actually do it, until they are on their way to heaven.

Yeah, it does appear that he made a few mistakes regarding business and women, the two biggest sources of potential danger for expats.  I don't know the circumstances of him having his wife jailed for adultery, but I cannot see that ever working out well long-term.  He had to have known he was in danger, but it's just too easy for expats to get lulled into a sense of over-confidence and imagined safety.  I see his son is here in an Ormoc City hospital.  I hope it's a private hospital and they still treat him well, knowing his father is deceased and there might not be anyone around to pay the bill.  

[robert k]

5 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Yes, he was well liked and respected but he was a 'businessman'.  By that I mean he was 74 years old and still buying and selling properties like he could take the money with him when he went.  Some people just can't retire.

 

Anyway, in this thread people are comparing the dangers in Philippines to dangers in other countries.  I have heard of husbands killing wives in North America.  It happens too often.  But in this country there are way more wives killing husbands than the other way around.  It happens way too often and the wives are seldom convicted or punished, which is probably why it happens so much.  I can only speak from my own personal observations but it seems to me that the male victims are usually warned by many of their friends before the deed is done but they never believe that the wife or ex will actually do it, until they are on their way to heaven.

Dave, women kill husbands lots more often than people think in the US. There is a television show called "Snapped". There are a fair number of Black Widows (the spider) that kill their mates.

[chris49]

20 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Yes, he was well liked and respected but he was a 'businessman'.  By that I mean he was 74 years old and still buying and selling properties like he could take the money with him when he went.  Some people just can't retire.

 

Anyway, in this thread people are comparing the dangers in Philippines to dangers in other countries.  I have heard of husbands killing wives in North America.  It happens too often.  But in this country there are way more wives killing husbands than the other way around.  It happens way too often and the wives are seldom convicted or punished, which is probably why it happens so much.  I can only speak from my own personal observations but it seems to me that the male victims are usually warned by many of their friends before the deed is done but they never believe that the wife or ex will actually do it, until they are on their way to heaven.

Prefer to see some stats or hard numbers on that. We do see it on the news but small sample size.

Hit man or killer for hire would be more common I think.  But then inner city USA, random killings, drug related killings, street justice eg Chicago was having 10-11/day average and it is not all reported case to case.

Now going on the broad assumption that a person does not get bumped off without a reason, I think most of us are safe. And as for those wives who have had their foreigner husbands killed, it is often using the guys own money to arrange it.

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

16 minutes ago, chris49 said:

Prefer to see some stats or hard numbers on that.

Since the women who kill their foreign husbands in Philippines seem to get away with it, more often than not, how would anyone arrive at hard numbers.  Seems we can either open our eyes and look around or put blinders on.

 

18 minutes ago, chris49 said:

Now going on the broad assumption that a person does not get bumped off without a reason

True, but often the reason is so trivial; such as the wife found a younger man and can live on the dead foreigner's social security for the next dozen years or so if he's dead, this due to them having one or more kids together.

I just did not see men getting killed in Canada by their wives.  Of course the wives in Canada would be foolish to do that when they can divorce him, take half or what he has now and half of what he will earn for a large part of his future life.  Here, there is no divorce, only annulments and widows.

[RBM]

34 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Since the women who kill their foreign husbands in Philippines seem to get away with it, more often than not, how would anyone arrive at hard numbers.  Seems we can either open our eyes and look around or put blinders on.

 

True, but often the reason is so trivial; such as the wife found a younger man and can live on the dead foreigner's social security for the next dozen years or so if he's dead, this due to them having one or more kids together.

I just did not see men getting killed in Canada by their wives.  Of course the wives in Canada would be foolish to do that when they can divorce him, take half or what he has now and half of what he will earn for a large part of his future life.  Here, there is no divorce, only annulments and widows.

Plus, and big plus is in Canada and most western countries there is accountability.

Back on topic, I have resided here off and on many years. We spend time in Cebu and other cities, often returning home late. At times we walk using of course common sense. At no time have we felt in danger or threatened, like in any country we pick the areas , dress accordingly plus keep alert.  There has been the occasional amateur attempt at pick pocketing which can happen anywhere.

Personally feel just as safe if not safer than being in Christchurch.

[chris49]

15 hours ago, RBM said:

Plus, and big plus is in Canada and most western countries there is accountability.

Back on topic, I have resided here off and on many years. We spend time in Cebu and other cities, often returning home late. At times we walk using of course common sense. At no time have we felt in danger or threatened, like in any country we pick the areas , dress accordingly plus keep alert.  There has been the occasional amateur attempt at pick pocketing which can happen anywhere.

Personally feel just as safe if not safer than being in Christchurch.

In or out of earthquake season?  .

I have been in Wellington and Christchurch and I would say they are among the safest cities in the world.

I said the same thing in Riyadh in 1981. Then in circa 2000 and onwards things changed. We were called in to work during the first compound bombing, 39 killed. We did not get all the victims but they lined the hallways that night.