Almost every single day I hear about someone getting ripped off by someone else. By "ripped off", I don't mean have things stolen from them (that happens too). What I mean is when people get overcharged or charged more than what was agreed upon. This is not exclusive to Americans in the Philippines. If it were, it really wouldn't be that bad. However, many of my Filipino relatives and friends complain about the exact same things. While I won't go into great detail about the specifics, I can tell you that I've experienced this over and over again, not just for myself but the people I'm with. Luckily, I've only had to deal with this once or twice. It helps to have relatives that know what to do and who to talk to.

Why is it that when we need to get something done today, the other party will do everything to slow the process… then require money "under the table" as an incentive to do it at the time it should be done anyway? It has to be greed. I can find no other rational explanation for the behavior of the people who do this.

When you hear of government workers that only make 7000 or 8000 pesos per month in salary, you have to consider how much they make from the people they extort money from. I would estimate many collect more than 30,000 pesos per month. And then they have the audacity to complain how little they make from the government.