Foreigners cannot own real estate. You can own a condo if 40% (or maybe it’s 60%) of the units are owned by Filipinos. Your wife can buy real estate and your name can be on the title but I’m not sure if will guarantee any rights for you. You can do a long term lease, like 25 years with option for 25 more.
A foreigner in the Philippines cannot own a gun legally. Your spouse who is a citizen can. Guns in private hands seem to not be rare but most of them are illegally manufactured and unregistered. Certain towns are widely said to be sources of illegal firearms.
According to nationwide law a gun buyer is supposed to provide tax returns and more documentation. BUT I asked the staff about it when I was visiting a local gun store, and they scoffed and said all that is necessary is permission from the local police chief.
And now the thread has again taken a gross and creepy turn.
Moderating:
Your post is pretty misogynistic in the end. I’m sure very offensive to many and all kinds of racist also. None of it quite reaches to a warning. But I am going to instruct you to no longer post to this thread and to please be less gross and creepy going forward.
Also hiding your post.
It has indeed, but please flag it next time.
Yes, I am aware of both of these restrictions and when I speak of someday owning either of these I speak with the knowledge that I would need to married and have them in my spouses name. But really, I dont see a need ti own a home, maybe a condo. Not seeing a need for guns either.
I know the old saying about how you never hear about the airplanes that don’t crash, and so there surely are plenty of successful relationships just like the OP envisions.
But the disaster stories I’ve heard and seen are awfully ugly. Caveat emptor in Cavite City.
Tampo is always a major hurdle in relationships with Filipinas.
The first 20 years of my marriage were the hardest. Since then it has been relatively smooth sailing.
Sounds most like your Filipina was seeking a level of respect it took you. A long time to figure out.
More and more you guys sound like you’re talking about a commodity.
Did you have more than a cursory glance at the link? Tampo is a cultural thing and is universal among Filipinas. It can take a long time to get it sorted out. Respect should be mutual. The silent treatment can’t be mistaken for respect.
Ihave been reading his blog posts, about his advice to western men seeking Asian lovers, it’s eye opening. Yeah he commodifies a population of women because he likes sex with Asian women.
Have you read the blogs?
I think that you are reading more into this than @Mr.Duality intended. The point was about filipina women displaying what they call Tampo, which isn’t much different from human behavior eleswhere in the world.
This is a thread about seeking advice, not about what some blogger in a link is saying about other topics. Do you have any advice to give?
Moderating: Please drop the blog stuff. Thank you.
I am back and the Philippines exceded my expectations. I am meant to live in heat and humidity during the day and air conditioning at night. I will be moving there as soon as I get my home and possions sold. I’ve informed work of my decision to retire, I am signing up for my SS benifits and getting my banking in order.
I’ll be posting some of my experiances and findings soon.
eager to hear more details … I like those threads that start somewhere and go places (moderately linear) …
First, my schedule of events at the One Oasis condo that I made my home base. The first night there I acclimated to the change in hours. The second day I met my lady friend at the condo, and she stayed the afternoon, then she said she had to go home and take care of her sick child. That’s OK, I wasn’t expecting things to just take off. Said she would be back in four days if her kid was feeling better.
So, for the next four days I explored the city on my own. By exploring I mean I walked everywhere I went from at least 10 miles to as much as 20 miles a day. I walked the main streets to tourist spots and down the newly build costal highway. I stopped at a fishing village there and had coffee with some expats at a small seaside resort and they told me stories, like don’t drink alcohol at the bars because some spike it with methanol. Drink bottled beer open in front of you they advised. I got a lot of sun but didn’t burn.
She returned on day 5 and we stayed together for the rest of the time there. We went out to local restaurants and ate local food. I had squid for the time, it was grilled and looked much smaller than it was before cooking, tasted great. I had tuna belly at a local grill and learned that you don’t eat the skin, I didn’t know that tuna skin had little scale like bones in it as I never had truly fresh caught tuna before. Turns out I really love the seafood and chicken adobo and pork. We went to the market and brought food back to prepare in the room.
On day eight we went to a resort on Samal Island for 3 days and nights called Pearl Farm Resort. We snorkeled with giant clams and out on a reef where we saw sea snakes. We rented jet skis and kayaks and enjoyed endless buffets where I sampled even more Filipino foods and loved it. Got back to the condo and continued exploring the city by walking, taking trikes and taxies everywhere. Went to a couple of different malls for shopping to see what the prices of things were and to look for uncommon items like fresh milk, good cheese, and pickles. In general, western style foods were expensive compared to local foods, not a big surprise.
We got along great, and I was surprised at how much western music she and everyone here was familiar with. I heard people sing Hank Williams Senior Jambalaya at karaoke and was shocked. They love our old songs there and love to sing them! Movies were different, I was surprised that she was not exposed to more of our pop culture movies, so we watched Pulp Fiction, Dances With Wolves and Terminator. She loved them.
The city was a bit dirtier than I had expected much trash on the streets and many homes were little more than shacks, but people seemed happy and did not mind their living conditions. I never felt threatened one bit while there, and I walk through many what would be considered questionable neighborhoods just by judging from the housing. People were just so damn friendly there. The infrastructure was more dangerous than the people, unexpected holes in sidewalks, poles in the actual street where cars traveled and having to walk out in to the street because the sidewalk ended was common. Oh, and most intersections did not have stop signs or traffic lights, people just kind of went with the flow or a traffic guard would sometimes come out and direct traffic. No one got angry.
Checked out the local banks, was able to take money out of ATM’s and was reimbursed for my ATM fees. Also found that what they call pawn shops are money pick up stations and I was able to send myself cash for pick up there. I had no issues using my credit cards there. Also checked out the Bureau of Immigration and was told that I would have no issues getting an extended visa based upon my age and income.
So just an initial information dump. Go ahead, ask me anything!
Thanks for updating Si_Amigo. This thread has been a fascinating one - so many things I never would have even thought about considering before becoming an expat. So following along as you go through this process is super interesting, and I hope you continue to keep giving updates.
Glad you had a great time and it is working out! Just remember…
…don’t try and pet these 
.
We had a LARGE sea snake on land outside our villa on an island off Fiji last month–I didn’t realize they came on land. Easy meter long. One of the housekeepers grabbed it and flung it away. I hear their mouths are too small to bite humans, but best to confirm that before petting.
And here I thought that everyone would be making comments and asking about my lady friend!
I’m tired of these MFing snakes in my thread! 
Another thing that surprised me was that she could not understand the concept of having a furnace that heated an entire home. She actually thought that maybe I had wood burning stoves or fireplaces in my house. 
Its freezing out now, so I can’t wait to unlearn about the need for a furnace.
Am guessing (hoping) this isn’t a concern for the OP, but I just read an NPR article that says the rate of HIV infections has gone up significantly in the Philippines. Be careful out there.