its true foreigners can't own a lot,property,island!!the sad thing is that,their is a way around our laws that could give a special treatment-like marrying a Filipina!!Al,surfcamp and that guy i mentioned ain't in good terms!!

Jerry you forgot one thing. Foreigner becomes Filipino citizen foreigner is no longer a foreigner.
Shadow, Apoua Grande has been owned by foreigners for almost 20 years the guy who bought it off the Swagman Group is a good bloke although I dont know if he still owns it as I haven't been down there since I was asked to leave the place in 1991 after I had a fight with one of the local boys after he hit my pregnant wife. I am sure if the barrio is still on the Island you can find accomadation there and cook all you like. I dont believe the owners would ever stop someone from surfing out there and I am also sure they would not charge you for it. They are not surfers themselves and are probably not interested in surfing.
Knefut, I was recently speaking to a friend of mine who had no hassle surfing at Badoc but he did tell me that the Baranguay Captain told him if there was any trouble they were to come and see him and he would sort it out for them.
Remember guys not all foreigners are a#sholes.
The ownership laws as I know them to be are as long as a Filipino Citizen has 54% ownership then foreigners can have 46%. Therefore if a block of condos has 100 units then 54 of the units are set aside for Philippine citizens and the rest can be owned outright by foreigners. Like Jerry says you can marry a filipina and buy land but she has the majority ownership and the law is on her side as with having a Filipino partner. I am also led to believe that the government has allowed a law that allows foreigners to invest in the Philippines for tourism ventures without requiring a filipino partner but I am not sure if the land is leased or is owned outright. And of course the person you may be calling a foreigner may actually be a citizen then he has the same right as any other Filipino/Filipina.
If you have a problem with discrimination somewhere take it up with the NBI or the department of tourism. We all know money talks in the PI as it does in most countries of the world so if you take your complaint to the authorities outside of the province you will possibly have a chance of being listened too.
Also you guys who get pis#ed off with us foreigners marrying Filipinas should remember that there is no law against it nor should there be as there is no law stopping you from coming to Australia and marrying an Australian women after all we are all human beings regardless of what colour skin we have or where we were born.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Cheers hope your getting more waves than I am at the moment.

nice reading material!

1.  Alon Surf Tours Philippines is owned and operated by local surfers -- from la union.  Take note!  

2.  Tourism is good for locals.  Because:
    a.  Localism starts -- more philippine-made rashguards, boardshorts, wax, etc.
    b.  Most surfing equipment would be cheaper because they're made by Filipinos.  These would include boards.
    c.  More boards would be available -- access to shapers, within the philippines, would be great!  A Filipino shaper would be greater!
    d.  More job opportunities for those who haven't had the opportunity of quality education, those who believe in the promise of the Filipino and those whose main goal in life is mainly to surf.
    e.  Less crime rate.
    f.  More government awareness of Surfing in the Philippines.  When this happens, refer to Section 3.
    g.  Tourism increases the GDP.  Increase of GDP means increase in Peso therefore decrease in oil prices, decrease in Partas fare, more money to go surfing in La Union.
   
*I should just stop at job opportunites coz that's the main point of this whole operation.

3.  Yes there are surf spots where owners forbid non-guests to surf.  These include Badoc Island in Ilocos, Pirate's Cove in Samar -- where there's this really long righthander that breaks perfectly, f**ck! -- and it's just about to start at a certain spot in Mindanao -- i don't know exactly where.  This is what should happen, but we, at la union, don't know exactly how to go about it.

    a.  The government should re-emphasize the law about the beach being public property and that the 'salvage zone' laws be implemented.
    b.  Despite the fact that the public should have access to the beach, the government hasn't put up right of ways for the locals -- the property owner has the right to let persons trespass or not over his property.
   
10 years from now, whether we like it or not, the Philippines will be the next Indonesia.  As of now, all -- as in all -- surf tour operations are owned by foreigners.  But who knows the Philppines best except the Filipino?  We have to get our act in shape, or else the three century-Spanish colonialism will seem like peanuts to what will happen to us in let's say, 20, 30 years from now.

Mark,what you said about foreigners being allowed to invest in Philippines tourism ventures without requiring a fiipino partner I think is true.I know a couple Australians who invested in some land with a Japanese guy about a year or so ago.

I guess a lot of filipinos are fed up with some of the foreingers who are condescending,ignorant and arrogant..to put it bluntly.All you have to do is spend a few hours in the airport transit lounge to hear these guys talking shit to each other,as if theyre gods and that these women are objects,that the country is their easy access playing field.But,thats just a minority I guess..you can't judge every foreinger by that small group of guys who make their way to the Philippines every year.There are good guys out there too with good intentions!

www.gov.ph has all the foreign ownership and investment laws on it. Check it out if you want to know the rules

hi mark...

yeah they dont care about people going surfing in the island... well... i did plan to have my next visit be dropped off at the barrio... that's where we bought the fish we ate... small barrio... if i can, i'd probably stay there too... live there for a bit... with the locals... the ones in the barrio... about 20 families only, i think...

Shadow I am sure you wont have a problem in the Barrio finding somewhere to stay especially if someone from Daet or Mecedes has relatives out there. You are correct the barrio is a small one.

yeah... hehe.. i dunno anyone tho.. but if i find someone, i'll stay there for real.. been planning to stay in daet for 6 months this year too...

Maybe you can camp on little Apuao or Canton without any problems  

just because one white boy screws around doesnt mean they all do. stereotyping may help but in most cases in distorts your personal judgement.  its the same all over the world, youve got pinoy assh@les on one hand, and youve got foreign assh@les on the other hand, its one world were living, same bananas everywhere.

my take on this is verify all the facts, try to get to the authorities, if they cant take action, we can always arrange something to achieve the same effect. yeah youre right mark money talks here but who cares, frankly, i dont, especially if it involves not so nice person foreigners acting like they own the country, putang ina for lack of a better word. damn just because they can buy a piece of land doesnt mean theyre damn f**cking lords here.

if whatever was written here was true than maybe its just justified for people to get back to that white boy, just because he can afford to build a damn house in la union doesnt mean he can f**ck around as he wish. if whatever was written is true i say that pooface deserves some sort of payback. and i know some people from surfcamp checks this forum regularly, so if you surfcamp people do see this tell that guy about it. if its true, tell him to f**ck off! one day he will regret what he did.

So anyway, Alon surf tours OWNED and operated by local surfers. Cool !

Doray good luck in what your doing. One question though what foreigner owns the Puting Bay Bay Resort in Catanduanes.

Hi mark,the said resort is owned by a pilipina,

i am to married to a aussie and we both have worked hard to achieve our plans in the philippines.It has taken almost three years of work here in australia  to build a house and shop which would have taken a life time back home.give respect to gain respect,and also check out web site living in the philippines as more people check out the philippines for there retirement.

Agnes I know who owns it. Doray made a statement that all surf establishments were owned by foreigners. I am sure Rudy and his family are not foreigners and as far as I know he was the first Pinoy to own and run a surf camp albeit that a foreigner came up with the idea. And that was a very long time ago.
Cheers

In 10 years is the philippines going to take over indo to get them waves

One would have to doubt that but who knows if Indo has a 10 year flat spell then maybe the PI will be the place

One last thing Doray I don't think you can compare Foreign surf tour operators to the rule of the Spanish or for that matter the Yanks or the Japanese when they had their turn.
They may not let you surf there but I don't think they are going to kill you and take over your country.
Cheers

Sorry Doray this is not meant to offend.

okay i get the point.  but this is good conversation.  once you get to la union, let's have a beer and continue this -- 10 beers even.  

No problema Doray.

on February 3rd, 2004, 9:12am, marklucas wrote:.
Shadow, Apoua Grande has been owned by foreigners for almost 20 years the guy who bought it off the Swagman Group is a good bloke although I dont know if he still owns it as I haven't been down there since I was asked to leave the place in 1991 after I had a fight with one of the local boys after he hit my pregnant wife. I am sure if the barrio is still on the Island you can find accomadation there and cook all you like. I dont believe the owners would ever stop someone from surfing out there and I am also sure they would not charge you for it. They are not surfers themselves and are probably not interested in surfing.

Hey Bryant no I can't ever recall the PI having a 10 year flat spell. You're right about Bicol copping it from the typhoons every year. Catanduanes cops it the worst probably.
Hope you enjoyed surfing Apoau I had plenty of good waves between 87 and 91 all around those Islands and as I said before if Terry still owns the place they are good guys down there. I was actually offered a job down there one time but didn't get along too well with one of the home owners so I passed it up.
Hope it's pumping in HK it's crap over here at the moment.
Cheers

mark i havent surf really,busy with my new job and twas really cold here and i hate my wetsuit coz its so heavy,

 i can recall i went there with some hk surfers aswell,well,5 of them,and we scored waves even if it was around May,1999..so ull never know unless u live there,i guess,that was the time i relaize i can do 3 bottom turns and a snap on single wave,wc is almost impossible to do here in Hk..

cheers

 

Yeah Bryant you get a few waves May/June which probably proves there really isn't a season for surf in the PI it just happens when it happens. Did you surf Apoau or next door
Good luck with the new job.

thanks mark
yep we surfed apuao and river mouth in M****..and Tongs point..

hmm... i dunno if this is a known fact or not but i think i heard somewhere that feb's one of the peak seasons of surf in daet... but yeah, most of the waves are effects of low pressures and typhoons near bicol... anyway, i just got back from daet.. been there since start of feb and the waves go as high as one and a half as high as me... well, it's still windy and it's still not the perfect waves in daet but these give good long rides specially when ripping across the channel...

i stand 3' by the way... hehehe...

hey shadow!  that's good news.  at least there's somewhere with decent surf when it's flat in the south china sea.  but unless the wind dies down in daet sometime during the day, the waves are never gonna get better.

by the way, has the sand bar at bagasbas fixed itself?

and yes, would you know how mocha is doing?

hehehehe.. doray... the winds are really crazy in daet and that what's make surfing more fun and crazy... waves arent as predictable as when they are calm and coming in sets... waves just come when you least expect them so you have to really watch and wait and have a quick reflex on when to and not to ride... more wipe outs and more washing machine experiences and more over the falls and they are all great.... and when you ride that adrenaline-rushed ride, they will keep you wanting to go back in spite of the cold strong winds and crazily criss-crossing waves...

mocha's having a real grand time taking care of my godchild.. hehehehe... and she still surfs... i just dont look at her much when she surfs coz i happen to be looking at the waves myself...

yeah children!  do give my regards to her and i hope she's got her figure back.  the guys from la union might be going to daet for the comp in may.  tell her competition for the women is getting better.  she better win in her homebreak    

i hope to meet up with you during the comp too...  but that's a long way off.  so chill!

yeah, well... peeps in daet arent too enthusiastic with the event coz the organizers dont give a shit about them... no words until now when i heard that some of them are even pals of alvin... anyway... if it happens, we'll prolly see each other.. ill tell mocha your regards... ill tell her you're eyeing on beating her on her own grounds... hehehehehe