I've been checking into Cebu big time. Houses there are relatively cheap, it'd be easy to set up an office for outsourcing, and I'm into Filipino Martial arts. The airport looks decent and - after having been burned in the US - the fact that Fili women can't divorce you is a selling point. Thailand, The Philippines, and Panama are at the top of my list now.
From someone on the ground (not in Cebu but close) I can tell you that living in The Philippines can be challenging and rewarding at the same time.
The power grid leaves a lot to be desired. If you live in a low priority baranguay you will experience blackouts on a semi regular basis. In some cities like mine (100,000 people +) we have scheduled brownouts every Sunday. If there is a severe blackout, you can lose a lot of food to the hot weather unless you have a generator.
The internet even in the city is not that great and expensive. I pay almost US70.00 monthly for 512 K. There are cheaper plans, but their service is awful. The general consensus here with broadband (1M) is as long as you are getting 60% of what you are paying for you should be happy
Gasoline costs about US1.50 a liter. This equates to about US6.00 a gallon. Propane is quite a bit cheaper though for cooking and charcoal is cheap too.
Food in the grocery store is expensive, especially if it is imported. You can get whatever you want here except for Pinto beans and a few other things. I bought a kilo 2.2 pounds) of chicken wings today at the meat counter for about US3.00 and a 750ml bottle of Wesson Canola oil for about US6.00 We have Oreos, Doritos, Hunt's BBW sauce, Dole and Del monte products, hershey bars, Coke, Pepsi, 7Up and A&W root beer if you look hard enough.
A big Mac Meal supersized at McDonalds is about US3.75, We have Pizza hut, KFC, Shakeys, 3 Tacos Bell's in Quezon City, TGIFridays, Chilis, a Hard Rock and many other US brands.
Immigration is easy, but you keep on paying for it every other month. The first 21 days is free then you have to go for an extension for 38 days for about US75.00 you can keep extending every 2 months for that amount plus an express lane fee of US25.00 - funny thing is there is no slow lane. You can stay up to 2 years, but if you stay over 6 months there are all kinds of new hoops to go through including getting an Alien Registration Card with photo ID (this is new this year). Of course you can bypass this with an investors visa, a retirement visa, or a Special Employment Generation Visa. If you get married to a Filipina you can get a 13A visa.
Forget owning property unless you own part of a corporation. A foreigner can generally only own 40% of a company. Even if you are married to a Filipina, you can't own land. If she dies before you you are at the mercy of HER family unless you have kids and only if they are above the age of 18, otherwise the land cannot be in their name. A lot of famliles will treat you like an ATM machine. As a foreigner, you are expected to help the family in some way because you owe it to them. Could be a number of things, a house, school tuition, medical bills... you name it!. Nothing will piss you off more than becoming the designated slave for a whole family that think they hit the lottery when their girl found you.
Labor is cheap, but generally there is a reason why. You will not get the same work ethic that you will elsewhere. They have plenty of fevers, LBM (loose bowel movement), and deaths in the family. They are trainable to an extent, however they will never think on their feet and come up with unique ideas. A graduate of a good school with a bachelor's degree in computer science will cost you about US400 a month and will know how to code, but the creativity is not there. If you expect to have someone that will live up to your expectations (especially if you are Type A) then you are sadly out of luck.
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