Next door's brother died last night in a motorbike/tricycle collision. Both drivers were drunk, the tricycle had no lights on, this is the 5th fatality in the last six weeks in the village and there are less than 5,000 that live here, most of them kids. All accidents involved a motorbike, four were after dark, 3 of them the bike rider was drunk, one the lorry driver was drunk and one bus driver was on drugs. No wonder that the chances of dying on the road here is 27 times that of the UK. A week ago was the first time I have driven after dark in 5 years ( 04:15hrs ), the 4x4 in front of me hit three stationary items ( two parked tricycles and an agricultural vehicle, all parked well off the road on both sides ), I did not dare to overtake despite him achieving the giddy heights of about 25kpm until he drove off the road into a ditch, I then noticed his number plate "VICE MAYOR".

Worse driving I saw was in Khartoum. When the railway barriers went down the cars lined up on both sides and on both sides of the road. Imagine when the barriers went up. Usually took an hour to clear the backlog with everybody in the right.
as for the Phils. The saying "when in Rome" comes to mind. At least the locals know what to expect. Don't be in a hurry.

I am the only car driver in our household so have embarked on teaching our daughters, aged 19 & 18 plus my wife to drive our SUV. To safeguard my sanity I am teaching them one at a time, starting with our eldest daughter, who is proving an excellent learner. I am aware that I should not be teaching anyone to drive here as you need a professional instructors licence to do so but I have adopted a Filipino attitude to this regulation. We have a book that has all the rules of the road in it, although it is the worst layout I have ever seen for such a book and all pictures are in black and white, not helpful for road signs/markings. Luckily we live in rural Philippines where traffic is very scarce and police even scarcer. I want my daughters and wife to learn the right way to drive and to give respect to other road users and show curtesy. I have a driving certificate from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) in the UK.
My question is, what kind of parking is needed to pass the practical driving exam? Is it reverse parking into a space between two parked cars parallel to the pavement, as the UK, or reversing between two cars as a supermarket parking bay or just parking at the side of the road? Also how long is the practical driving test as I have read reports ranging from 5 to 45 minutes and on open roads to dedicated LTO test centre circuits?

When I had to take the test as they refused to honour my UK/euro license as the expiry date was on the back of the plastic.

I watched the practical test unfold.The applicant sat in a min jeepney style jeep(4 seats) next to the Test manager. She started the car and inched it forward a few feet, and then eventually found reverse with the help of the tester. There was a high pitched grating of metal as the exhaust tail pipe touching the ground resisted all attempts at being moved. Car was stopped, hand brake on and gear in neutral. Once again both accomplished with the help of the tester . Big smiles all round as the candidate passed the practical driving test. Rinse and repeat until the exhaust fell off. As it could not be fixed. All those who were waiting including me were passed. Cue even more smiles all round

My wife when she passed was truly awful and a danger to herself and anybody in or outside of our car be they on the road or not.. After several months of me giving her a hard time and being met with the usual local response of 'go home foreigner' my wife is now a very passable driver to UK standard. So much so, she tut tuts others on the road.

She did not take a practical test either they just accepted the driving school hours covering parking and reversing etc. No hill starts, we do not have any here!! plus the theory/written test.

So, I suspect this will be down to the driving school log and passing the written test.

The only parking I have seen in a driving test has been at Roxas City LTO, it was less parking more just abandoning it within 5 feet of the pavement, which the drivers seemed quite happy with.

We live just outside Roxas City, on the coast near Panay Town, so will be using the LTO at Roxas for the written and practical test. I've given all three a go in the car and because they have used our scooter for a couple of years are fairly road savvy. The eldest daughter is already up to UK standards but we just need to practice parking.

My wife kept on about her taking her driving test, I kept saying no as she has an attention span of a gnat. She eventually tried a different tack and said she wanted to take her test so if I got ill during the night she could drive me to hospital. I just told her I did not want a heart attack as well as my illness. She has given up asking,

I didn't know the number of hours logged with a driving instructor were checked by the LTO, this is not mentioned anywhere, I am now worried as I have done all the instruction so we have no logged hours to show anyone.

They did the same in Cairo. The worst time there was in February when the first rain came, all traffic stopped, drivers got out of their cars and started to rummage around in the boot looking for the windscreen wiper they put there last years to stop anyone stealing it, sometimes took over a day to get everything moving again. It gets a bit like that here at the beginning of the rainy season.

I didn't know the number of hours logged with a driving instructor were checked by the LTO, this is not mentioned anywhere, I am now worried as I have done all the instruction so we have no logged hours to show anyone.

My wife took her driving test in Cebu. They tested her on both parallel parking and the parking bay type of parking

If they are that strict in Cebu I wonder how they won the accolade of being the worst city in the world to drive in.

I thought you just bought the license, driving being optional.

Nah, you just buy the raffle ticket, Looks like each center has its own interpretation of what will be acceptable Perhaps the OP should just ask them what they need to see and do.

The best thing you can teach them is defensive driving. I did a police advanced driving course many many moons ago in the UK. Their main message was "If it looks like it is going wrong - it will. Pull over and wait". Which in Kalibo proved invaluable a few years ago, I slowed down to get away from an erratic driver in front, the car behind overtook using all the revs he could accompanied by a finger went past me. Five minutes later I came across him, the erratic driver and a motorbike that had been coming the other way. Despite the 'don't you know who I am pleads' I only helped the motorbike rider.