If you have your heart set on living in the Philippines, Mindanao in particular, are you sure Mindanao is where you want to be? No, I’m not referring to the notion that it’s dangerous here; all the (rare) activities that make the news – bombings, kidnappings, political killings, etc. I’m referring to the infrastructure.
Specifically I’m referring to the power supply issues, though the congested roads and flooding issues due to development are real problems, too.
“You just wrote about the brownouts, Randy. We know all about them now.” Yes, I did and I’m going to write about them again. Because that’s what’s on my mind and it’s difficult to ignore them. We had one last evening for an hour or so, another this morning for a good 1.5+ hours. They put out a schedule, but I quit printing them out, as they weren’t following it. Besides, the schedule wasn’t nearly specific enough to know when they would happen, even if they had followed it.
I won’t dwell too much on the specifics of the brownouts, other than to say I don’t have much confidence in any promises that are being made for the end of the schedule. All this is supposed to be over by June. Tingali!
One thing all these brownouts have done is made me consider if I would recommend Mindanao, including Davao, to others asking about where to live in the Philippines. There are so many other cities, big and small. Do you really NEED to live in an area where they can’t provide power on a consistent basis? Oh BTW, in case you’ve missed my mentioning it before, we also lose water if the power is out long enough. Just like living in the province.
Truth be told I had considered living in a province and/or Samal Island at one time. These kinds of things I would have expected. The choices of living remotely versus close to a big city will often include these trade offs, at least in a developing country, as the Philippines most surely still is. I even expected occasional brownouts in Davao, as had been my experience during my previous times in the Philippines. As I started visiting here about 8 years ago, you would think these issues would be improving. Unfortunately the growth that is happening here, is not allowing it.
It does seem odd to me that investors/developers are willing to come into this area given the problems that exist. Make no mistake, they are coming and most certainly adding to the issues.
If one has a choice of where to live, and they were moving here soon, I’d recommend they look around at other areas if they were to ask my opinion. It’s a good idea anyway. The Philippines has a lot to offer, and the more you can see, the better chance you’ll find the perfect spot. Long-term I had already decided to check out other options anyway, mostly due to the traffic congestion that is increasing here. I’m not sure I to want to put up with that situation in the future.
Given the latest power issues, I think there are other options that may be better short-term for those that are not tied to this area. I’m not really in a position currently to get up and go. It’s possible by the time I am that all this will be nothing but a memory. If it’s not, it’s going to be an easy decision to move.
There is a lot to like about Davao, and the greater area of Mindanao. The question is whether it’s enough to outweigh the issues that you might not experience (at least to this degree) elsewhere. Just something to think about before you make a long-term commitment.
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Apr 13, 2014 @ 07:56:13
We also are reconsidering if Davao will be right for us, although if we do decide to make that our home, we want to be a little distance from the actual city, but no more than 45 minutes away, so we can shop there once every week or two. We WILL have a generator wherever we decide to locate at , for sure. I understand what you say Randy, but just because you move to a new area that does not have brown outs currently, they could start any place at ant time it seems. Tago, in Surgiao has them almost every day now, and have recently lasted up to 4 hours at a time I have been told.
I think its a gamble wherever you move as to when they will start, and I think it will get much worse and more widespread before the problem gets any better, it seems.
Apr 13, 2014 @ 08:20:33
Certainly blackouts can happen anywhere. I experienced them in the US, too. I’d recommend doing the research on any place before moving there. It is well documented that Mindanao has a lack of available power for the region. Rapidly getting worse as so much development is ongoing. Supposedly there are two new power plants coming onboard within the next year or two. Whether that will keep up with growth is yet to be seen, given they do start up in that time. There is also the issue of outdated equipment in the system, which was reported to be at least partially responsible for the latest region wide blackout.
With Davao, the lack of consistent power is just part of the picture. The traffic is getting bad quickly. You can see it and with each new development, it gets worse.
One can deal with the brownouts with preparation such as generators, emergency lights, solar backup, etc. If you’ve got the funds and are willing to do that, that will help for sure. I was in NCCC yesterday and the power went out. They had the generators on in short fashion. For some of the malls, GMALL for example, many of the stores close and things like the escalators don’t run while on back up power.
It can be dealt with. Question is do you want to?
Apr 13, 2014 @ 09:23:36
Mindoro around puerto galera has good infastructure, dont have any idea where they get the power but its not pollutted there
Apr 13, 2014 @ 11:25:37
There are many places I haven’t visited here, but from what I can gather there are plenty of places with good steady power. I’ll put Puerto Galera on my list to check out sometime.
Davao has been, to some extent, excluded from the power issues in Mindanao until now. GenSan, for instance, has had regularly scheduled brownouts for some time. Long ones, too.
Apr 13, 2014 @ 12:25:45
Thanks for the heads up, Randy; I’ve been thinking of living the wabi-sabi style in Samal, anyway….but of course from my perspective now, that’s easier said and imagined than actually living by the kerosene light and pumping ground water by the “poso”. Hey, Randy, anytime you’re in Manila, look me up. I know I should be visiting Samal this year, not sure when, though.
Apr 13, 2014 @ 13:05:34
Thanks, Rhodora.
There are still many in the Philippines living the “true” simple life. It would be hard, but it can be done.
I should be coming through Manila in a couple of months or so. Not sure how much time I’ll have, pero tingali?
Apr 14, 2014 @ 01:02:53
mindoros charms are not seen until you penetrate past the tourist areas my married into filipino family lives there so its easy for me to escape and enjoy the charms
first thing to do there is rent a scooter and drive up the costal highway and explore
Apr 14, 2014 @ 06:21:13
How large and modern is the nearest big city? That’s become somewhat important to me, but maybe less as I get older.
Apr 14, 2014 @ 03:24:07
I ask myself this question everyday.
I think I have my answer, unfortunately it only holds 50% stake in the decision making.
Apr 14, 2014 @ 06:18:34
You are in a unique situation. With a job that allows you to work nearly anywhere in the world, but with strong family ties in Davao. I can see why it would be difficult choice. As you say, it’s only partially yours. And you know that 50% of yours is going to be reduced to 33.3%, or less, sooner than you know
Apr 14, 2014 @ 21:11:32
These issues are present nearly anywhere in the Philippines.
Apr 15, 2014 @ 06:32:57
I honestly haven’t heard of scheduled brownouts in other areas. Not saying they don’t happen, just hadn’t heard of them myself. My brother in QC, has never mentioned having regular brownouts, for instance, not that I would want to live there
The traffic issue is worse in Manila, and probably a little worse in Cebu but Davao is catching up. I guess it was inevitable here in Davao, but it previously was one of the nice benefits of the city to not be congested. As we discussed, for your situation it’s not a big deal. Those further out and reliant on certain major roads feel the issue more prominently.
Apr 15, 2014 @ 10:01:00
Manila is an exception on the power, but would you really want to live there?
For years, JJ, Texan in the Philippines, has been complaining about brownouts daily, for many hours in Calbayog. I know for a fact that much of Cebu has no power for 8 hours or more every Sunday and has for years. Sometimes they have lengthy brownouts on Saturday’s too. Rusty has been writing about this for years already.
Almost anyplace, outside Manila, in the Philippines has regular brownouts.
What we have been experiencing in Davao is a pain, but still minor in my view.
I guess we look at it differently.
Apr 16, 2014 @ 17:59:45
And then there is this just now:
Apr 15, 2014 @ 12:14:24
What I don’t get is why it’s seemingly impossible to publish a schedule and stick to it. The way it is now, totally unpredictable, makes it really difficult if you depend on computers and internet for working — you never know when you’ll be cut off (in the middle of an important phone call for example). If it were predictable, it wouldn’t be that big a deal, you could schedule around it, but the way it is now it always seems to happen at whatever time is maximally disruptive to whatever you’re doing. The brownouts wouldn’t be enough (yet) to make me un-recommend Davao as a place to live, but taken together with all the recent internet outages/slowdowns it’s definitely not an encouraging trend.
Apr 15, 2014 @ 12:35:40
I agree with you on that, Jack! They need to do a better job of scheduling and also publishing what the schedule is. There is a lot of room for improvement there.
I haven’t experienced any kind of internet outages or slowdowns. What’s up with that? Maybe they are limited to your internet provider? My primary internet is from Globe, and it has been rock solid.
Apr 15, 2014 @ 13:35:47
We have PLDT, supplemented by a Globe dongle for when PLDT goes off, which has been every few days lately, sometimes for up to 12 hours or so. And of course for about a month following the undersea cable break everything was dead slow and a lot of sites in the US you couldn’t get to at all, the ping just times out. Seems to be back to what passes for normal now though. Also several times lately when the power has come back on after a brownout, the internet hasn’t, and it takes a phone call to PLDT and then waiting for a service person to fix it (hours, usually) to get it back on.
I’ve been following your articles on ISP’s with interest and I probably would have switched long before now, but my wife is very reluctant because she says if you give up PLDT it takes weeks or months to get it reinstalled and she isn’t convinced Globe would be better.
Apr 15, 2014 @ 17:54:42
I’m with Bob on the consistency of Globe. They haven’t been perfect, but by standards here they have been very good. My connection speed, barring things like natural disasters and a few local issues, has been very constant. The fact that they have reduced the price significantly since I signed up is a huge plus. Of course they didn’t just give me the new price, I had to request it, but It’s about 1/2 what is was before.
Apr 15, 2014 @ 17:51:46
They have been somewhat more regular with the schedule here, but who knows how long that will last. Even as it is, the target is large and not specific.
Slowly but surely I’m getting different things to help me deal with the issue. Not exactly happy about that, but what can I do?
Apr 15, 2014 @ 14:08:15
We will be moving to Los Banos, Laguna tomorrow. This is about an hour southeast of Manila. In my few times visiting Los Banos, there have not been any brownouts, but who’s to say what will happen in the future.
Apr 15, 2014 @ 17:49:42
I think that is a common theme. no one really knows what will happen in the future, but my point is Mindanao has had this issue for awhile now and it’s probably near it’s peak it terms of inconvenience for the whole. It sounds as though other areas have their issues, too.
Let us know what you learn about Los Banos and the situation there.
Apr 16, 2014 @ 00:47:24
angeles city has scheduled black outs as well
Apr 16, 2014 @ 06:37:43
Never been, and don’t have any desire to. But there does seem to be quite a few more places than I was aware of. Even more reason to do ones research.