Ensuring Personal Safety And Security In The Philippines

[Jim Sibbick]

The biggest safety message I can give is

Treat ALL Filipinos with respect ALL of the time.

I see it more like, "treat EVERYBODY with respect ALL the time"... Filipinos or not, it really makes no difference? Do you think you'd get away with it if you insult a Greek for example? Or an Italian? They are 'Kanos' aren't they?

Safety wise, if anybody looks for bad things ANYWHERE, he/she will find it!

I am in Cebu now. I made a mistake in my laundry list to my disadvantage and the hotel lady corrected and lowered it on her own!

I went with a real-estate agent and she, on her own, decided to show me the city afterwards while paying for parking, etc. !?

I texted her to rent a driver and she gave me a contact who called me right away...

All one has to do is go to the Ayala terrace and he/she will see many 'kanos' in their 70s dragging an 18 year old Filipina behind them!

Are you going to tell me it's not going to make any Filipino angry?

It does to me and it is very disgusting. I am sorry. Don't say, but she's OK with it! Simply coz, YOU should know better Mr. Kano!

Who's giving who a bad reputation? The poor who have every valid reasons or the rich, or those who consider themselves rich?

Well!

You say treat all foreigners with respect but you

- Want to call all foreigners Kanos!

- Want to tell other people how to live!

Here is my safety tip of the day for you, avoid using the name Kano for non Amerikanos. Most won't care but some of them do and some of them can hit pretty hard.

When you are 70, see how you feel about young women then.

[Jollygoodfellow]

This topic is about safety in the Philippines. There will be no more debate about age and relationships. Moderators hide any more posts on the age debate please.

[Mike S]

avoid using the name Kano for non Amerikanos

Suggest you wear a tee-shirt saying I'm NOT AN AMERIKANO ..... just to avoid a confrontation ..... because some of us in our golden years can hit back pretty good too ..... :thumbsup:

Edited December 6, 2012 by Mike S

[Thomas]

Here is my safety tip of the day for you, avoid using the name Kano for non Amerikanos. Most won't care but some of them do and some of them can hit pretty hard.

Are any puti that sensitive? even worse temper that almost all Filipinos. And do such sensitive white foreigners understand if I say "puti"?

I usualy say "kano", because I guess rather many wouldn't understand if I said "puti"... :)

This topic is about safety in the Philippines. There will be no more debate about age and relationships. Moderators hide any more posts on the age debate please.

OK. But isn't that a risk factor? :)

[MikeB]

Here is my safety tip of the day for you, avoid using the name Kano for non Amerikanos. Most won't care but some of them do and some of them can hit pretty hard.

Some of them can type pretty hard too.

[northtoalaska]

Old thread I know, but.....

One thing that I often see on travel forums is this notion that ANY city/place is or can be dangerous and therefore one should dismiss or minimize the dangers faced in local "X".

While it is true that crime exists everywhere I think it's a stretch to say places like the Philippines shouldn't present anymore of a personal security concern than AU or NZ or USA or UK, etc.

For one thing it's difficult to objectively compare as places like the PI, where corruption in endemic, seldom publish reliable crime stats. As a result one is left with anecdotal evidence--"I always felt perfectly safe....", etc. Not a very objective method.

While I too have never a had a problem in Cebu or Leyte or Samar, and while that encourages me to return to those places, I always actively guard against the notion that I'm "just as safe" as we're I in Auckland or Seattle or York.

I always remember that the last time I was in the Ayala Starbucks there were two armed guards there, that the drugstore in SM has a guard with an M-16, etc.

Don't take your personal security lightly and don't be complacent.

[Americano]

I am bob, on 05 Dec 2012 - 22:16, said:

Like everything else in Life, we have to evaluate every situation differently... I just had my wallet lifted - am I going to stand up to that one little guy and hold him for security? Oh, wait, he's with 12 friends and they look mean... We have to decide each time what we want to do. There is no one size fits all!

As for the 70 year old and the 18 year old? She's a bit older and I'm a lot younger than that but I'm sure my relationship with my Special Someone will burn somebody's derrière... But, hey! That's not my problem!

:mocking:

Bob, if anyone in the Philippines has a problem with your relationship it will probably be a foreigner who should mind his own business. Filipinos don't pay much attention to the age difference. The only thing I have encountered is young Filipino guys who wish my beautiful wife was theirs.

I have been living on Cebu for 3 years and 4 months. Yesterday was my first encounter with a pickpocket. Some movie stars and singers came down from Manila and were performing on stage in the parking lot of Gaisano in Carcar City. My wife and I were standing in a very large crowd of people watching the show. There was no one behind us until one of the actors came on stage and then everyone started yelling and screaming and a lot of people started packing in tight behind us and on our sides. Within a few seconds I felt something push upward on my back pocket 3 or 4 times. Its common to bump into each other when in a crowd like that but no one keeps bumping into you so I knew there was a pickpocket behind me trying to push my wallet up so he could pull it out. I knew what to do without causing an incident or making the pickpocket think he needed to defend himself. Keeping my hands in front of me I slowly turned around I looked back but I didn't look at his eyes or even his face but I could tell by my peripheral vision that he pretended to be looking at the performer on stage. I turned back around facing the stage and didn't feel anything after that. Two or three minutes later I checked and the young man in the yellow t-shirt was gone.

What did this experience prove? It proved that an illusion can trick a pickpocket and give the pickpocket a target which can alert you that a thief has chose you as his target. What was the illusion? I always carry a packet of tissue in my back pocket which looks like there's a wallet in my pocket.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Americano

[Will]

The other day I was at the beach with family near Toledo City. I have a nephew that is shy, withdrawn (kinda scrawny) etc. So. I took him to a rocky part of the beach and found rocks on shore that were good for skipping on the water. He had never done this, so he needed to be shown how to hold and throw the rocks. While skipping rocks out into water, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, three young Filipino men out in the surf (away from where we were throwing) shouting to each other, and finding "bigger" rocks and throwing them back to shore (not at us). With each throw, they looked at me like "I threw a bigger rock than you!" In a threatening manner. It made me think back to over 20 years ago, standing on the beach at South Padre Island, Texas... Right on the Texas and Mexico border. The young Mexican males would all bow up in a threatening manner, jealous of the American.

I've found the Philippines to have a very similar culture to Mexico. VERY similar. The machismo culture is heavy in both countries. I've always found it ridiculous when you have to go to such extreme measures to show to others how "macho" you are.

So on the beach in Toledo I did the same thing I did at the border. Gave a smile. Slightly shook my head, and walked away knowing that I have nothing to prove.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Will

[Thomas]

Within a few seconds I felt something push upward on my back pocket 3 or 4 times. Its common to bump into each other when in a crowd like that but no one keeps bumping into you so I knew there was a pickpocket behind me trying to push my wallet up so he could pull it out..

What a crapy pickpocket!!! He better look for an other occupation   :lol:

 

(Back i elementary school, we picket wallets between us friends just for joke, and I almost never were noticed by the victim, but by other friends, because we didn't bother to hide from the others, because it was for their amusement too. And one of my friends, who is overleader of the youth leaders in the Swedish Soccer champion club now, was specialiced in pick up locked doors with a modified comb, still just for joke, confusing the teachers how we could sit in the classrooms waiting for them, without no teacher had opened for us   :mocking: 

 

 

If using wallet at all for anything valuable, then can the old trick be used with a string and a safetypin, so the wallet is attached strong enough to your trousers/jacket/handbag, so if a pickpocket try to run away with your wallet, then he has to run away with that biger thing, and you too   :)

[2Cats2]

 

Within a few seconds I felt something push upward on my back pocket 3 or 4 times. Its common to bump into each other when in a crowd like that but no one keeps bumping into you so I knew there was a pickpocket behind me trying to push my wallet up so he could pull it out..

What a crapy pickpocket!!! He better look for an other occupation   :lol:

 

(Back i elementary school, we picket wallets between us friends just for joke, and I almost never were noticed by the victim, but by other friends, because we didn't bother to hide from the others, because it was for their amusement too. And one of my friends, who is overleader of the youth leaders in the Swedish Soccer champion club now, was specialiced in pick up locked doors with a modified comb, still just for joke, confusing the teachers how we could sit in the classrooms waiting for them, without no teacher had opened for us   :mocking:

 

 

If using wallet at all for anything valuable, then can the old trick be used with a string and a safetypin, so the wallet is attached strong enough to your trousers/jacket/handbag, so if a pickpocket try to run away with your wallet, then he has to run away with that biger thing, and you too   :)

 

 

I use a wallet on a security chain.  Like this:

 

http://pacsafe.com/walletsafe-100-anti-theft-tri-fold-wallet

 

Difficult to pick-pocket....

 

If really concerned then my phone is in an ankle wallet...also difficult to steal....

 

http://pacsafe.com/walletsafe-300-secret-arm-ankle-wallet

 

You can buy both at NAIA or at some outdoor sportswear shop.

 

2Cats2