Everyone & Their Mum Is Packing

Another thing that immediately strikes you about the Philippines is the security: it's everywhere. From the minute you arrive at the airport through to day-to-day activities, everything is dominated by the presence of security. It feels more like downtown Baghdad. The hotels, shopping centres and other public buildings have airport style scanners. Some have sniffer dogs. Bags are routinely checked. All shops have security guards. Our site has 24 hour security guards. All are armed with hand guns. Others have short-stock pump action shotguns.

I'm not entirely sure what the perceived or actual threat is. I know that there is trouble in the south of the country, where Muslim rebels are demanding their own independent homeland but I thought this was confined to the occasional kidnapping. When I was in Manila a couple of years ago I was told that it was largely a scam by the owners of the security companies, who tend to be ex-military or police personnel that create a threat atmosphere to ensure that their businesses stay busy. If at anytime the need for quite so much security falls off then they generate a scare to ensure their order books stay full.

It certainly is big business and the only real benefit I can see from it is that it keeps a large number of people in employment. On the downside, it doesn't actually make you feel safer. If anything, the complete opposite and surely scares off potential visitors and outside business and investment?

Clearly a contributing problem to this is the ease and widespread availability of guns. Just about everyone owns one. Only last week it was reported in the press that there was a shoot-out at a fiesta where four people were shot dead. The wild west (east) indeed.

Site Security

This week we (myself and a colleague) had to go to Manila for an interview with an immigration officer as part of my application for a work permit. I sounds as though I've done something wrong but I haven't, it's just one of many hoops to jump through and like most things in the Philippines, a pile of red tape has to be contended with that can only be visualised as looking like a huge plate of tangled spaghetti.

I’m told that the interview process is a relatively new requirement, although leading up to and even following the actual interview I couldn't fathom what it was meant to achieve.

The day started at 4:00am in order to catch the early flight to Manila from Cebu. Fortunately, the immigration office is quite close to the airport so we were spared the nightmare of the Manila traffic, although our taxi still managed to get lost.

The immigration office is located in a fairly nondescript office block but inside was a bit of a surprise in how basic it was. Outside there was the obligatory armed security guard, although I couldn't imagine what he was guarding. Inside, the reception area consisted of yet another armed guard and half a dozen rows of those school type chair/desk combos, with the desk mounted on one side of the chair. However, these were made of plastic, like cheap patio chairs from B&Q and judging by the size of them taken from the local primary school so they were a real squeeze to fit into, especially for my European bulk.

On the wall in big red letters is a sign that reads "SILENCE PLEASE". However, in the corner was a TV at full volume blaring out a song by a Filipino Bob Marley wannabe.

The company lawyer who is assisting with the work permit application arrived and she had even more of a problem squeezing into the school chair - there is no dignified way of getting in an out of one. We were briefed on what questions we were likely to be asked and what our answers should be. I personally couldn't see what the problem was so long as we were to tell the truth.

As expected the 10:00am appointment didn't take place until 10:30am and we were led into a plywood office where there was a small chap with a Fisher-Price hair cut sitting behind a large desk. I say sitting, but he was virtually horizontal due in no small part to what appeared to be a beach ball he was concealing up his shirt. It was easily the roundest belly I'd ever seen.

The interview was really odd. I expected it to be an interrogation into why, as foreigners, it was necessary for us to work in the Philippines and what specialist skills or expertise we had or were bringing to the country. What we were asked is whether there were any Filipinos who could do our job an if not, why not? It's a really difficult question to answer without appearing condescending or belittling and it seemed as though at times we were being manoeuvred or provoked into making disparaging remarks.

In addition, we were asked if we took an interest in politics in the Philippines, which with hindsight I think was a really loaded question and any response in the affirmative would have meant having our applications rejected. This I responded to by saying that I didn't even understand politics in the UK so wouldn't even begin to try to get involved or understand politics in the Philippines. This seemed to the right thing to say.

Lastly, with a gentle leer over over the hidden beach ball, the suggestion was made that we were there for the girls. What me? A sex tourist? Hardly.

With an element of good humour and a friendly smile we seemed to pass the interview without a hitch and so within a few weeks should be able to obtain our work permits.

Toledo City