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What Do You Think of The Philippines?

Posted by gelene • 3/19/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: opinion on the philippines

I am from the Philippines and I love this country even though we go through a lot of tough times that draws a lot of negative attention. I was just wondering what are the honest opinions of people from other countries about the Philippines..

User Comments

3/19/08

MiLan

A country where our call center jobs are outsourced heavily.

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3/19/08

Toppy

Sounds like a beautiful country, I'd like to visit.

In Vancouver, Canada I've heard some negative things. For example that there is corruption with the police/government (you can buy them off). Thus many of the people are thought to be corrupt and live by their own rules.

This is also said about most countries though. You always have to take these rumours with a grain of salt.

Regarding the people, I have had good experiences with them both in work and social life.

Oh, I've also been told Arnis and Eskrima are supposed to be very effective and nasty martial arts.

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3/19/08

tenforty

Dont care what others say. I m Singaporean, cant speak a word of Filipino but I go there once a year, sometimes 3 times a year. Love the shopping there. 'specially SM Megamall in Manila.

Love the friendly people too. Why cant we have such good service back at home!

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3/19/08

Marques

A beautiful country with nice people...

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3/19/08

nplbjirel

I do not know much about Philippines. But, I hear about Gloria Arora( confused) often in news.

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3/19/08

footiam

I have been to Manila. I have posted something of it in travelpangs.blogspot.com. Haven't found the time to add Tagatay yet. Manila is nice!

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3/19/08

gelene

hello to ll those who replied to my discussion.. and thanks for the nice things you've said. it really feels nice to hear (read) people say nice things about the country.

Milan: yes, there's a lot of call centers here especially in manila.. theyre like mushrooms.

Toppy: yes, we have a lot of great places you could try to visit someday. we have great beaches as well, and diving spots too. You're right about the politics thing as well..

TenForty: service is very important here. Its something social. I mean, social standing is a big deal here. If you can pay for it, you get served like a king.. too bad for the poor people..

Marques: thank you.

Nplbjirel: its Gloria Arroyo, and i wont wonder why youve heard about her. She's all over our country's headlines.. tsktsk.

Footiam: Manila has great places to visit especially if you're out for a good time, i mean the bars, comedy bars etc.. the malls and shoppes are all over the place as well. But the pollution is kinda tough and the populations..booming. You could try the provinces.. the air feels like heaven.

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1. 3/25/08
  
  nplbjirel
  
  Thanks, I got it now.
3/22/08

genopianist54

Beautiful country with beautiful women

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1. 3/26/08
  
  soupnumber5
  
  agree...
3/22/08

estertey

thanks... Im from the Philippines living in Toronto.. I miss my country so much...But Id rather have the snow than summer in the Philippines..lols...hotttttt!!!

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3/22/08

dreesyach

Beautiful women.. You as well..

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3/22/08

boazstuff

I've been to Manila for work last year. Before that, my impression of Philippines ain't good. I got to say, honestly, that after the trip, i thought Philippines is quite "developed", at least in Manila. There are so many shopping malls and even the Biggest mall in SE Asia or Asia (I can't recall) The food is simply fantastic, especially for person like me who likes MANGO a lot!

However, i'm surprised about the explosion on the shopping mall Goretta which happened shortly after i left. I'm shocked as Goretta was the place i frequent when i was there. . .

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3/22/08

saxyphone

I've never been there.. but I heard of the huge music talent in abundance in the Philippines. Here in Singapore, most of our club bands are Filipino Bands.

Would love to visit there one day.. and drown myself crazy with live bands and beer! Haha!

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3/22/08

gelene

Genopianist: i think there are many beautiful women all over the world but since i am a filipina, i'd love to say that you are right.

Estertey: I've been wishing to experience snow too since I was a kid. Hope that dream comes true.

Dressyach: Thank you.

Boazstuff: they say that the Philippines has the sweetest tasting mangoes in the world. Enjoy. :)Btw, yes, the Glorietta bombing shocked us all.\\

Saxyphone: They say not a single Filipino does not know how to sing. Ofcourse that's a lie. Haha..we just love singing.. the videoke slots/mics/bars/stalls everywhere proves it. hehehehe. Hope you'll get to visit the country one of these days.

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3/22/08

pointlessbanter

It might have the highest concentration of make money online bloggers anywhere on the planet.

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1. 6/19/09
  
  trailofpen
  
  Even more than India?
3/22/08

app2usadvisor

1. A beautiful country with paradise like beaches.
2. A country that sends a lot of visitors to my blog www.app2us.com/blog/

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3/22/08

filmasia

It has many islands and beautiful beaches

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3/22/08

gelene

pointlessbanter: i agree. and im one of them. i dont see anything wrong with that.. do you?

app2usadvisor: nice one...

filmasia: tama ka diyan. (you are right)

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1. 3/22/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  shocking
3/22/08

kdawg68

I had a girlfriend/roomate from the phillipines in college. I found the culture very fascinating and yet amazingly familiar - probably because I was raised Catholic.

I've never been there but I wouldn't mind going - especially with all the pretty girls there.

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3/22/08

globalgirl

Nothing, really.

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1. 3/22/08
  
  irelandpropertypro
  
  Ditto!
  
  So I did a Wikipedia on Philippines...a few things I've discovered:
  
  The Philippines was a Spanish then an American colony & got independence from both.
  
  The name Philippines comes from the name of Philip II of Spain. (when it was a Spanish colony)
  
  It has a huge population - almost 87 million people.
  
  Consists of 7,107 islands.
  
  Most of the mountainous islands used to be covered in tropical rainforest and are volcanic in origin.
  
  There are approx 20 earthquakes daily in the Philippines - though most are too weak to be felt.
  
  & finally, from the photos I've seen, it looks like a really stunning part of the world - the landscape is just amazing.
  
  I gotta visit sometime!
3/22/08

Xight

Nothing out of the ordinary really. I live in Maui, and we've got a huge Filipino population since they immigrated workers for the sugar/pineapple plantations a long time ago.

You know theres alot of them when you can take Illocano or Tagalog as a high school language class along with Spanish/Japanese/French etc. We also have quite a few stores that cater to that population so we see alot of their food products here too.

We have soo much of their culture within Maui's culture that anyone who's grown up here will get confused as which is Hawaii/US/Filipino/Japanese/Chinese culture. Alot of the things I thought were Hawaii culture turned out to be from the Philipines.

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3/25/08

gelene

filipinos are all over the world because they try to find the 'greener pasture' as their families might be dying of hunger if they stay in this country forever. but if given a choice, and if they'd be making much here, they probably would want to stay with their families than work in another country...

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3/25/08

juliemo

Well said (the last entry) gelene.. =)

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3/25/08

gelene

thank you juliemo

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3/25/08

ttiger

im dreaming about a trip to bocaray beach
but it very far from canada..
like 24 hours / 3 transfert by plane:(

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3/25/08

gelene

its boracay beach ttiger. i myself havent been there but ive been to puerto galera beach and they're just as beautiful.

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3/26/08

Webloggr

Boracay beach??? That's like a two-hour travel away from my house. *laughs*.
It's the best beach in the world (however commercialized it may seem or they seem).

When you go there, it's like you go to a place where every country has a representative. Everybody all over is just there.

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3/26/08

msculit

Place of very beautiful, warm-hearted, loving people... enough said. Syempre!!!

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3/26/08

gelene

swerte mo naman webloggr (you're so lucky webloggr), i have to ride a plane for manila and from there i have to ride again for antique and a few more travel by land (or sea?) to get to boracay itself. phew.

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3/26/08

manumartin

It's a place were people are frank, and honest.. and its somewhat like india.. we too get so many outsourced work. But I feel you guys are giving us a tough competition by dropping your prices.

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3/26/08

gelene

haha, yep as ive said those type of businesses are like mushrooms here as well as in india. but i must say that though it practically feeds a huge part of our population, i find that it has a very negative implication. plus the fact that they're underpaid..(compared to what they should actually be getting)

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3/26/08

Puffmatty

hot chicks

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3/26/08

daniel23

Never been. Jungles 'n' shit.

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3/26/08

gelene

excuse me daniel23?

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1. 3/26/08
  
  daniel23
  
  As I said - never been. All I know is that the US waged a war there early in the 20th century, y'all had a dictator whose crazy wife now boasts about what a nice guy he was, and, ur, you got jungles I think...
3/26/08

fineartathome

They were invaded by the Japanese in WWII, then liberated by the US and granted independence on July 4th, 1946.

And I love adobo chicken.

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3/26/08

Mewie

Corrupt politicians, Jolly Bee (my former roommate's family owns that franchise), Hating Chinese folks b/c they're rich, Catholics, and Pork Adobo (my favorite dish!).

Many of my friends are Filipino... they taught me tinikling (sp?). Of course, one stereotype my filipino friends confess to is the attraction to 'drama.' But hey, i'm sure that's universal.

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3/26/08

gelene

good you had that cleared up daniel. anyway, sure we have jungles here. you're absolutely right about the crazy wife of Marcos daniel.

fineartathome, adobo's also one of my favorite dishes specially chicken adobo. how did you know about the dish?

Mewie: whoever told you about the corrupt politicians isn't lying. haha! but we don't hate chinese folks. that's not true. there's a lot of chinese people here in the country and they're treated equally..even with greater respect because, as you said, they're richer and occupies the class A society (most of them)

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1. 3/27/08
  
  Mewie
  
  Yes, I totally agree, gelene.
  
  I was just generalizing since the rich Chinese have on occasions been hunted down and kidnapped for ransom... even car bombed. My former roommate speaks from personal family experience. he needs a bodyguard every time he's home. I think that's why he enjoys America so much since he's a 'nobody' there.
3/26/08

xorsyst

I grew up in a military family. And to this day, my best friends are Filipino.

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6/19/09

Taffy1957

Hi Gelene,

I am from the UK but now live in the Philippines with my wife & son. I love the country, the friendly people, the culture, but for me the one thing to melt even the coldest heart is that beautiful Filipino smile!!!
Awesome place

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6/19/09

selfstudy

mabuhay philippines...

i love my own my native land....

all i can say is, i hope someday we can have a good political leader....

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1. 6/28/09
  
  Taffy1957
  
  @ Selfstudy,
  
  until the Filipino people stop voting people into office based on the amount of money they hand out at elections & start voting for people based on their policies, then I am afraid we will have a very long wait.
6/28/09

celticmusicfan

I am from down south. I think we stop putting the wrong people in the government then we will earn the respect of other nations.

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6/28/09

selfstudy

yeah i agree with you guys, the political situation in our country is getting worse, its really hard to unite all the filipino people for the betterment of our country..i think the political system is not the problem, the problem is the leaders who run the system....

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6/28/09

kath

love it of course that is still home after all i especially miss the malls LOL...

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6/28/09

kath

uhmm, politics? how Katrina and Dr. sumthin' (Ko, was it?) made it to a senate hearing to wash all their dirty laundry in public, almost made me puke...very, very low. I mean- only in the Philippines...that is sad.

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