Cons:

- Dirty streets and polluted air. Often the streets are littered with garbage and look like they were part of a sewer. It makes you feel like you are walking through a gutter. There are no quality control standards in cleanliness or maintenance, except in rich neighborhoods. Rivers and streams look dirty and toxic too. Thus the land, air and water are polluted in any mid-size city there.

- Most products are generally of shabby quality, unreliable and break easily. Even brand name products seem to be made inferior to their usual standard, for some reason. Most things sold at the SM Malls are from China and break easily. Clothes you buy there usually fade after 2 or 3 washes, which make them look worn. Even brand name products wear have defects that they usually don't have in first world countries. The power goes out randomly and sporadically out of nowhere. Don't expect the reliability of First World Countries. Quality control standards are very subpar, not at the level of First World industrialized countries.

- Food in the Philippines is considered by all foreigners unanimously to be the worst in Asia, hands down. Not only are the ingredients in the food of bad quality, but they are shabbily hacked together with no skill or class. 95 percent of restaurants owned by Filipinos serve food that is so disgusting that you wouldn't eat it if it were free, yet they charge high prices for it and get away with it! It's mind boggling.

The fast food franchises Chow King and Greenwich are disgusting, not even edible and shouldn't even exist, yet they are everywhere in the Philippines! It's bizarro world. To get decent food you have to be very selective, visiting only places that you know have decent food, which are usually foreign owned. Places owned by foreigners or Filipinos who were trained abroad also have a good chance of being decent.

As a result, this leads to overall nutritional deficits in the Filipino population, which most are unaware of.

- It is very HOT and HUMID year round. Arizona weather is like California compared to the Philippines. You never get a break from the sticky sweat on your skin. The only relief is to go indoors where there is air conditioning. This makes it hard to enjoy being outdoors. This also means that at your home you have to have the air conditioning on all the time, which skyrockets your electricity costs! It's unavoidable.

But you have no choice since it's so damn hot and humid day and not EVERY day of the year! Those who hate humidity will wilt in the atmosphere of the Philippines. In addition, the air also seems thin to some, making it hard to breathe or exercise.

- Food spoils very quickly in the Philippines, even when it's refrigerated, like it does nowhere else, probably due to the humidity that allows all kinds of molds and bacteria to grow. I've never seen food spoil as fast as it does in the Philippines.

- You can't leave food on the table or anywhere in open space without ants getting to it within minutes. But it's impossible to remember every time to put food in the fridge or within locked containers, so inevitably you're going to have ants getting into some of your food. It's very annoying, and does not happen in colder or dryer climates.

The humid air and unsanitary conditions in the Philippines makes it a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty insects, pests, viruses, bacteria and shit to grow and flourish everywhere. This is bad for expat health because there are more diseases and infections around for you to catch. So not only do you have to deal with greedy people around you, but nasty pests and insects as well. Ick. It often makes you regret being there.

- Many people are rude and inconsiderate without manners or civilized behavior. They cut in line in front of you, interrupt when you're talking to a salesperson, are pushy when they want you to buy something, etc. Beggars will touch you and stand in your way and demand donations. Trike drivers will cat call you as if you were their pet. I've seen construction workers use electric drills and saw wood right in the middle of a crowded restaurant, totally oblivious to the fact that they are annoying the hell out of the customers! (fortunately they were ordered to stop eventually) But boy I've never seen such clueless people.

- In the Philippines, you are constantly surrounded by people with a "give me, give me" look on their faces. And that's because the key to their survival has been in finding ways to GET things from others, taking advantage of them, and freeloading off them. They're always looking for free things and generous people to get things from. But of course, they never want to give anything for free, as nothing in their culture is free. It's obvious hypocrisy of course, but I guess in their position, they can't afford any ethics. This can get annoying and infuriating, as it makes you feel like a constant target, but some expats get used to it and just develop a firm stance against them, while others don't.

- Filipinos definitely love to GET and HATE to give. This explains in part why salaries are so low in the Philippines that many have to go abroad to work or resort to receiving funds from overseas relatives or foreigners. They are so low because everyone hates giving and is super stingy, while of course they are always happy to receive as much as possible from others. This creates an obvious imbalance in their society that leads to problems.

The basic hypocrisy here is that everyone is always wanting to get but no one wants to give. This creates an imbalance that leads to consequences.

To them, there is no shame at all in taking, but there is in giving. When Filipinos do give, it's always very little, and if it goes beyond that, there will be extreme reluctance and an attempt to make you feel guilty for forcing them to give. Giving goes against their nature.

This is why foreigners who live in the Philippines or have done business there will tell you that "When money is flowing from you to them (Filipinos) they will be nice and friendly to you. But when money is flowing from them to YOU, they will see you as a devil."

Many Filipinos feel NO SHAME at all in receiving things, even at great expense to the giver, but in fact have an OVEREAGERNESS and INSATIABLE appetite for it. They receive with a child-like glee, as if they were children jumping up and down in front of Santa Claus waiting for their gifts.

Try this: When you are in a department store, go to a sales associate and point to some fancy expensive item and jokingly say, "How about I buy that for you?!" Notice how they light up with glee and delight as they say "Oh really?! You buy that for me?" as though he/she were a child, totally forgetting the nonsensical nature of a total stranger buying an expensive gift for another stranger for no reason.

That's because their desire to receive without shame or guilt supersedes everything without inhibition. It's the nature of their character. There is no shame or guilt in seeing you waste your money either, even if you're poor or on a budget. They are always very willing to receive things from you, even if it bankrupts you.

Many are also not shy to ask you directly for a gift either, hence the popular cultural line they give you when you are about to travel: "Don't forget my pasalubong (gift)." Even jokes like that are revealing in regards to a culture's mentality. Such greediness is the worst in Manila and Angeles City, but not as bad in the rest of the country or the provinces.

In this area, there is a double standard in that while it is ok for a Filipino to want to receive things for FREE, and take advantage of any FREE thing they can get, it is considered out of line and rude for a foreigner to expect to get anything for free. Instead, foreigners are supposed to enjoy paying for everything, not expecting anything for free. Yet a Filipino is allowed to gleefully want and expect free things, especially from foreigners, as though it were an entitlement they had been waiting for, like a child waiting all year for Santa to visit his home.

- Foreigners are treated like Santa Clauses (without their permission of course). Filipinos hold two major fallacies regarding foreigners:

a) All foreigners have bottomless pockets and can never run out of money no matter how much they spend.
b) All foreigners do not care about price. It is never an issue to them. They are willing to pay any price for anything without dispute. Wasting money is not a concern to them.

They simply do not understand people. Even rich people will have preferences in what they want to splurge on and what they don't. Just cause someone is rich doesn't mean he will not be concerned about price vs. value, and making sure he gets his money's worth.

Now "b" may be true for many white foreigners who do not mind splurging, but not with Chinese foreigners. No way. Chinese are brought up with major shame and guilt about wasting money, even if they are from rich families. Filipinos do not understand or relate to Chinese in this aspect