Death of a foreigner in the Philipines...a salutary lesson.
 

Greetings,

I have not posted this in my usual Philippines blog because I think its an important subject for all.

An American friend of mine died a few days ago after a short illness. He had a filipina gf and they had lived happily together for 10 years in the Philippines. Sadly he made no proper arrangements for the inevitability that befalls us all. He was admitted to a private hospital and although his gf paid daily for his care and medicine the remaining balance of over 100,000 peso had to be settled before the release of a death certificate. He had no Philhealth nor medical insurance. He was in his early 70's. Nor had he made a will or had life insurance. She could not obtain the death certificate until the balance was paid which I settled with a credit card. She was also receiving financial help from friends here and his family in the USA. The death certificate was only then issued after authorisation from his family in the US. They were not married. Once authorisation was given she had to obtain the relevant documents from the City Hall before notification to BI. The City Hall again requried authorisation from his family in the US. Once obtained, BI told her it would take 3 - 5 days to process the documentation for his funeral.

Fortunately, she had friends around her to help with the trauma of laying her bf to rest here in the Phils. Also, she had access to his bank account to help pay for daily medical costs whilst in hospital. She does not have access to his savings accounts which could have helped with the emergency medical costs. She does not know what her future holds because there is no will. She has to hope his family does the right thing.

The salutory lessons are there for all to see. Your filipina partner deserves nothing less. Thanks for reading.

Regards

Pete

Re: Death of a foreigner in the Philipines...a salutary lesson.
 

Seems like the consequences of at least 50 years of progressive casualization of relationships, certainly in the US and UK. It has become increasingly acceptable to thumb your nose at the conventions of marriage as if there are no consequences, but governments of all countries, to varying degrees, operate based on legal contracts, notably including those of marriage, and without a marriage certificate you are relying on not only family members, but also the local and national government to "do the right thing". But for government ls, often doing the right thing means only "follow the letter of the law", so basically shuts out cohabiting partners from the situation.

In short, while you might be an aging hippy who enjoys breaking the social conventions of marriage, even though that is pretty old hat these days, in order to do the right thing for your girlfriend, or boyfriend, and any other dependents, marriage may be the easiest solution. If for some reason marriage isn't possible then you may need quite a lot of paperwork to achieve the best/desired outcome for your heirs.

Re: Death of a foreigner in the Philipines...a salutary lesson.
 

From the other end of the political spectrum I have to agree with Pulaski. The convention of marriage is there for a good reason. "Shacking up together" can lead to all sorts of complications.

Re: Death of a foreigner in the Philipines...a salutary lesson.
 

Pete, thank you for posting that and my condolences on the loss of your friend. Lots of lessons there for both parties in a relationship.

An acquaintance of my husband lived in Bali for 12 years with an Indonesian woman. She was 30 years younger than him. He wouldn't marry her but promised she'd be looked after after he died as he was leaving everything to her in his Will. This woman did everything for him and is a lovely, gentle person.

When he died and his Will was sorted, he'd left everything to a charity. She had absolutely nothing and her family wouldn't accept her back to the family home. Needless to say, we didn't attend his funeral. If we had, I'd have spat on his grave.