Casanova
Another recent article on the 10 Reasons Why Men Should Not Move to SouthEast Asia has been the long-needed inspiration that I needed to finally polish a piece of writing I had laid down long time ago, listing out the archetypes of Filipina women foreigners are likely to encounter during their stays and visits in the country. Note that my observations have been gathered throughout the period of more than five years of living, working, traveling and interacting with locals predominantly in Manila and represent experience sampled throughout different stages of my personal life as well, so there will always be a degree of subjectivism, as much as I try to approach things from a neutral perspective.
Writing these lines it’s almost self-evident that the types of women (and people in general) we tend to meet in our lives are a solid reflection of our own life choices, so the subject of this article might just as well have been “Six types of men dating local girls in the Philippines”. Anyway, getting down to business:
The Freelance Model / Borderline Hooker:
Arguably the type that most short-term tourists experience in the country. It is difficult to be any different than that if your usual choices of hangout areas are around Burgos str., Cafe Havana in Greenbelt, clubs like Royal & Time or areas like Malate. Basically the so called “tourist traps” and the areas where you can only find pay for play entertainment.
In the last years Tinder has also become massively infested with “freelance models” who would basically offer escort services, possibly not being entirely upfront about it. For good or bad these areas and media cover the most popular choices where short-term staying tourists choose (or are guided) to spend their time in, which in turn sets you up for the type of people and women you will meet as well. Confirmation bias is very strong among people frequenting these areas, who instantly gain the impression that all Filipinas are borderline hookers.
There are also the more “upscale” equivalents full of GRO’s (guest relations officers, promoters or simply places where you directly pay drinks to interact with women in). I don’t see much difference in the mentality – regardless how you sugarcoat it, if you start your interaction with a woman by paying for her company, this choice certainly sets you in for similar subsequent experiences.
I don’t condone the patrons or employees of any of the venues and have visited most of them myself numerous times, but it’s important to understand what kind of experience you are likely to get there and not wonder when the woman you met in Royal asks you for cab money, allowance or whatever.
The Girl From The Province
There is a fair amount of girls who left their hometowns and came to Manila to look for better employment opportunities – something fairly usual for all regions where economic segregation between the urban areas and provinces is huge. Needless to say these girls usually have likely had limited opportunities to gain income and education. They likely live in the outskirts of Manila or the provinces nearby – a good hint would be that if you ask them what their travel time to Makati is, they respond with anything more than an hour.
Most of these girls have normal day jobs, mainly in the service industry – be it bars, restaurants, hospitality, BPO or anything else. Nevertheless, dating one of them will always have several different constraints to be aware of – they are likely socially awkward (or just shy) around foreigners, completely lose any sense of confidence among white guys and have a fairly narrow mental horizon. Not impossible to have had a kid or two plus some extended family depending on their ability to feed them one way or another. It is unlikely that any of them will ask you for money directly, but the difference of standard of living will still mean you’ll have to pay for everything unless you want to meet in a very local area and have Ministop meals together.
On top, you can sense that their conversational abilities are not very broad by just exchanging a couple of lines with them, so don’t expect that any of this will be different in person. It will be worse, much worse. There is a fair bit of them online in websites like Badoo, OKC or FilipinoCupid, but you will rarely meet one of them in night venues, due to the fact that those are mostly located in more expensive or otherwise unattainable for them parts of town.
The Horny School Girl
I have to agree that this type does not sound bad at all on the surface – especially if you are mentally picturing petite asian women in schoolgirl uniforms. The dating experience with them would largely depend on your own age I suppose – if you are in your late teens or early 20’s, you might find them cute. If you are anywhere close to mid-twenties or above, you would fairly soon have the impression you went on a date with a 9-year old girl, both due to physical appearance and overall demeanor.
These girls usually attend all-girl high-schools or colleges and are kept under strict home routine by their parents, so they see online dating as an amazing rebellion adventure against the status quo and boredom. You also need to be 100% sure that they are of legal age, that their father is not going to come looking for you if they break their curfew etc. as due to financial reasons, lots of the girls (and Filipinos in general) stay living with their families well into their 20’s (or until they get married). If none of the above bothers you one bit, I admire your resilience to lay women, in the words of “Offspring” – “…you’re gonna go far, kid!”
The Middle-Class Filipina
We are now slowly treading into the territory that short-term staying tourists don’t experience frequently. These girls are usually a good mix between traditional and modernized women – they come from good middle-class families (a class of society that is not very common in the country), have some form of financial independence, have traveled outside of the country, can afford to pay for their own transportation or own cars and live in or close to CBD’s (central business districts such as Salcedo, Legazpi, BGC, Ortigas or Eastwood).
They usually have relatives living abroad and their English is at an above-average level. I find this group of girls the most dateable out of all in the country and the one where most of my expat friends who live in the Philippines have found girlfriends among. The reason why they are not easily accessible during a short stay is that these girls usually have a somewhat similar social life to their Western counterparts – they do stuff out of work, attend social events, have friends etc. Some of them may work unsociable hours and it’s difficult to find an agreeable time to date.
They are also considerably more picky in their choices and generally go for younger and/or good-looking guys, foreigners or not, as they possess a rare combination of choice and a relative freedom, even if still living with their parents. They’d also much less frequently agree on insta-hookups or other PnD offers that the former 3 categories would eagerly sign up for. Which in turn means you’d have to spend some time building up comfort with them before the date – time I recognize not everyone on a few days/weeks trip has. If you are well calibrated socially, have at least average looks and good logistics, you will likely be able to meet these type of girls, regardless of the duration of your stay. They are mainly frequenting areas such as Poblacion if they go out, but the best place to meet these girls would be through social circle and activities – gym classes, meetups, expat events, work hangouts etc.
The Rich-Daddy Girl
I think of those as a combination of the Middle-Class Filipina and the Borderline hooker. They quickly serve as an example of how money corrupts the nature of women, as the majority of such (good-looking) girls are also often among the most active in the upscale night scene – you can usually meet them around the bars and clubs around Burgos Circle and The Palace in BGC. They usually flock in groups with other rich locals, both men and women, and are mainly interested in entertainment, due to the absence of social imperative to work for their living.
I suppose the rich-daddy filipinas aren’t much different than the kids of rich people anywhere else in the world, except that the level of attitude and entitlement you can develop in a country where most people are poor is arguably much higher. In order to lay rich-daddy girl Filipinas you need social circle, (at least some) fame and/or above average game skills. And even so, your result rate will not be particularly high. As far as long-term dating opportunities go, many of these girls’ parents will not approve marriage with a foreigner and would always prefer a rich local guy for a son-in-law, which adds an additional layer of pressure. All in all, I imagine that gaming these chicks is comparable to running game in upscale venues in the West. You need to be among the top 10% or your results will suffer, foreigner or not.
The Business Lady / Career Woman Filipina
Another thing worth mentioning about the Philippines is that as a whole and on an average, women are miles more dependable, organized, street-smart and even entrepreneurial than men. Therefore the phenomenon of a hard-working career lady or businesswoman is probably more widespread compared to other countries in the region. Some of them may have inherited their business or riches (from their family or husband), but there are quite a lot self-made as well.
This is another hybrid group that you are likely to experience dating only if you stay longer in the country. They rarely have time for dating website, because they are married to their jobs or business. So you either need to meet them through social circle, activities or in the rare occasion they allow themselves a night out in a club. Usually on the older side (30+, more often 35+), they are among the very few groups of real “grown-ups” you can meet in the country, being smart, sophisticated, well-traveled and socially calibrated.
On the other side, maintaining any sort of long-term relationship with a career woman can be quite a challenge anywhere in the world, in addition to all the downsides of dating, committing or impregnating older women that have been vastly discussed in the manosphere.