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Blinded By Love in the Philippines

“Love is blind,” they say but this is a case of blinded by love in the Philippines. This sad but somewhat avoidable story was brought to my attention recently. I refrain from making too much comment as the story speaks for itself.

You may recall I wrote about similar issues recently.

It’s a story all too familiar in the Philippines. Many foreigners have been ripped off, scammed by Filipinas. The foreigner becomes blinded to the loopholes in the girl’s explanations, blinded by love.

I could say this scenario is almost a cottage industry here but that is harsh. Most Filipinos of both sexes are honest, trustworthy people.

There are things Mr. Wenham could and should have done. He should have had the girl checked out. Simple checks such as asking around in her barrio, purok or barangay before he lost all his money may have prevented all of what followed.

He won’t be the first and definitely not the last to be scammed by a beautiful Filipina.

Please don’t let it happen to you. You can email me at adminATexpatinbacolod.com if you want to discuss background checks on a young lady if she lives in Negros Island or Iloilo.

The following is reblogged from Voices In A Box blog. It is totally unedited.


The David Wenham story.

Karen from the Philippines started to chat with me on FB in May 2013. In Aug we agreed to meet in Hong Kong where we both worked. We went to the Diamond Hill, and after a whirlwind romance, she kept saying she misses her children and wanted to live back in the Philippines. We left Hong Kong and arrived In Manila Airport on 2nd November 2013. I was given a tourist Visa for 1 month.

We travelled to Ammacian Village in Kalinga by bus. She told me I would not need much money the 70,000 pesos I brought with me would last me a year in Ammacian. Her family quickly opened my luggage and took everything but my clothes and laptop. I guess this is normal. At this time I weighed about 280 pounds. The food every day was rice and maybe a small tin of sardines shared between 12 people. The family is poor in Pesos but rich in land. I started to help as much as I could collecting and chopping fire wood and gabi to feed their pigs and even bought a pig for breeding. I started to lose weight rapidly whilst her father started to put weight on. I realized I was doing all the work he used to do whilst he watched TV. Still I was happy. Found out at this time her name was Maribel Agliam not Karen Bangcoc. When my visa was due for renewal we went to Manila by bus to immigration and met her Uncle Camillo Lammawin (two time Mayor Of Tabuk City) and her Uncle Henry Tubban an immigration lawyer who is based at Manila. I did not queue like others but taken to Henry Tubban’s office. He filled out some documents and I gave him cash for the Visa extension for another month. Uncle Camillo then took us to lunch in a nearby restaurant. As we were eating my passport was delivered to me at the restaurant. We travelled back to Tabuk city in Uncle Camillo’ car & stayed 1 night at his house in Bulanao before heading back to Ammacian.

Maribelle spent the cash quickly building a small store and named it “Four Kids”. She started going to Tabuk a lot. She often missed the jeepney to get home and sometimes she was missing 2 or 3 days. I believed her lies. The villagers told me she was cheating on me but I didn’t believe them

I was told the pig I bought for 6000 pesos was blind and no good for breeding and so it was slaughtered the meat sold mainly on credit. I received just over 2000 pesos. The credit never paid. I vowed not to buy pigs again.

When my visa was due for renewal there was no cash left. Maribel had spent it all. I was waiting for my house in the UK to be sold but my ex-wife was causing delays.

The villagers started to gossip causing many arguments between Maribel and I. She hit me over the head with the back end of an axe. Her father lied and told her I was telling the villagers she was a prostitute. He wanted us to split because he thought I had no money.

Over the first nine months in Ammacian my weight dropped to 140 pounds I looked like a skeleton.

Because of the lies being told to me about Maribel and about me to her by gossipers I did not know who to believe any more. My mind was spinning. I decided to leave. I went to Bulanao in July 2014 on my own to get my head straight and stayed in a boarding house. I had been sent 16000 peso by a friend in the UK. After a week I got text messages from Maribel “love you miss you etc”. Come back to Ammacian I said no so she then came to Bulnao and stayed in my boarding house we decided to go to Baguio to get away from the gossipers. We travelled to Baguio in August 2014 and stayed in various boarding houses. Maribel got a commission only job with Summit bank to get people to open bank accounts and the a job as waitress in Ebays restaurant. She did not earn much but we could survive. I was still waiting for my UK house to be sold. We were happy most of the time in Baguio. I at this time believed she truly loved me. She worked to get us food and we could just survive. I even started to gain weight again.

In October 2015 I finally received the proceeds of my UK house . I bought her a Galaxy J7 cell phone and we started to look for property. She told me she wanted to return to Ammacion. Again I said no but the closest I would live to Ammacian would be Pinukpuk Junction. Within a week I bought a house and lot for 100,000 pesos in her name as foreigners cannot own. I trusted her because of our life in Baguio she had taken good care of me.


Click on the link below if you wish to continue reading his story.

Mountain Love

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