In part one of this story, I told how, in April of 2013, my wife Marlyn had paid a surprise visit to our property in the Philippines. There, she found that things were not going as we had hoped. In fact things seemed to be spiraling downhill. Work on our ranch was not progressing as planned. There was also a dispute between some of our neighbors that had disrupted our communications. Most troubling of all, our caretaker had allowed squatters into a small house we had bought. During her short stay, Marlyn had taken some steps toward resolving the first two problems. She thought it best to let the last one ride until we returned in September. Before she returned to Virginia, Marlyn had reminded our caretaker of his responsibilities. In addition to those, he had been entrusted with the security of the little Native house, and he had allowed other people to move into it. She also got as much information as she could about the circumstances around the situation. We decided that there was little we could do about it from the US, so we worked up some contingency plans and kept moving forward with our stateside preparations.
Our plan for the Native house was to dismantle it, move it from our neighbors’ property, and reassemble it on ours. One of the people who had moved into it was the fellow we intended to hire to move the house, a genial fellow named Doming. Marlyn found that the house he had been living in with his family had been blown down by a typhoon. We knew the place, a seemingly nice home site under a big acacia tree. It is probable that he was farming that ground only as a tenant. It was a simple thing to pack up what was left and move his family into a better situation. He had recently been hired as caretaker on the farm where our house was situated. It made some sense that he would want to live on the property he was responsible for. Given those circumstances, and the nature of Filipino culture, I think that our caretaker felt he was doing the right thing. That didn’t alleviate the potential for big trouble when the time came to move the house.
We returned in September of the same year, ready to face the situation, whatever it turned out to be. We had worked out some plans for the different directions things could go. The squatter situation seems to have simply resolved itself. It was well known that we intended to dismantle and move the house, but about 10 people had moved into it. Doming seems to have used his time in our house and the resources from his new job to build a sturdy wooden house for his family about 100 yards away. By the time we returned, they had moved into the new place, and our house was vacant and ready for the relocation.
Our return was timed to coincide with the end of our caretaker’s contract. That way if things didn’t go well, we had the option of not renewing it and hiring someone else. We had only a short time available to us, and the big project of moving the house ahead, so we went straight to the ranch. No one was there, but we could see that Marlyns lecture had made an impression on our caretaker. A big chunk of ground had been tilled and several crops had been started. The litter was cleaned up and the area around the pump and well had been cleared and substantially improved. We decided to renew the caretakers’ contract for another year. The movement of the Native house turned out to be an entirely new set of problems that I’ll explain next time.
Cordillera Cowboy: Philippine Life and Travels 
My question would be: Why move a native house when they are so easy and cheap to build? Just asking.
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Hello Budrick. This particular house is a sturdy old one made of Nara wood, rather than the typical bahay kubo of bamboo and mats. We intend to use it as a guest cottage after our modern house is built.
Take care,
Pete
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Seems things worked out, but you are extremely lucky my friend. A caretaker is not the same standard as a property management firm in the US. Of course you learned the hard way.
A general rule of thumb here is MicroManage everything! Leaving details such as this to a caretaker is literally leaving your future in incapable hands. Be in place here, do it yourself, and never rely on others if you want what you expect in the end. Otherwise things go sideways quickly.
Sounds like if he built something for his family or whoever was occupying the structure, he was buttering his own bread in case his contract was not renewed. Even more pain for you if you decided to terminate him.
To me, the only way to get things done is move here, set up camp on the property and get a guard from a reputable guard agency to shoo anyone that sets foot near your property lines. Family members, if you choose that role, should be father and mother only. Otherwise you can get into a catfight with other family members over some implied ownership of the property. Greed motivates people so much here, especially when it comes to property matters. Sad but true.
Keep us posted on your construction as it moves along. Nice set of articles and keeps people thinking on remote management.
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Hello Rick. Yes we are lucky. Lots of ways this could have gone south. You’re the second commenter on this series who has mentioned micromanagement as the best way to get things done here. I don’t much care for it, but it seems that is the price of admission. We’ve learned that our caretaker works really well, as long as we’re watching. Almost not at all if we’re not. One reason for the surprise visits.
Perhaps it wasn’t clear in the article. The fellow who was squatting in our house, then built another for his family wasn’t our caretaker. And his newly built house is on an adjoining farm where he is hired as caretaker.
I’ll pass on hiring a guard to patrol our place Immediate family are all Stateside. There are hardly any of the extended family we would trust to stay on our ranch for the reasons you state. We opted for local hired help, on a yearly contract, witnessed by the Barangay Captain.
Glad you’re enjoying the articles. Stay tuned.
Take care,
Pete
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Good luck.
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Thanks Burdick!
Take care,
Pete
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Sorry sir! I do type Mr. Budrick, but auto correct keeps changing the spelling of your name.
Take care,
Pete
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Enjoyed the post. It is especially good in that it is about making a life in the Philippines and dealing with the local customs.
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Thanks Loren. If I had not been reading so much here and a few other places, I’d have been taken completely by surprise and knocked for a loop. Glad you liked it. Stay tuned for Part 3.
Take care,
Pete
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suspense……suspense…..please keep writing
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Will do, Maria!
Take care,
Pete
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Pete – Are you planning to have your native house blessed by a Catholic priest after it’s been moved to the new location? Just my feeling, but I would find it a bit unsettling if I were in your shoes to have my house moved by someone like Doming who had some ill fortune befall him with his old house that got blown down by a typhoon, or, quite possibly, got pissed on by the aswang that happened to live in the acacia tree his house was under LOL.
Whatever demonic curse Doming may still be under, he could pass it on to the native house he will soon be moving. The only way to neutralize the curse would be to ask the Catholic priest in Bayombong to come over and bless your native house in its new location, Pete. 🙂
Remember, though, that house blessings in the rural areas are almost considered incomplete without the obligatory small feast (read: lechon baboy) with the neighborhood from the surrounding hills in attendance. Don’t forget to tip the priest, Pete, or the holy water might not work. LOL
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HI John. I hadn’t thought of a house blessing myself, though Marlyn may have one in mind once we’re there at the end of this year. We hadn’t thought of Doming as unfortunate. Quite the opposite actually. True, his house had blown down, but that is rather common with the lightly built tenant houses hereabouts. When the property adjoining ours sold, the new owner (a Doctor, living in Manila) immediately hired a crew to clear it and plant rubber trees. He also hired Doming as caretaker. We all have considered that good fortune for him and his family.
All of the house blessings that I’ve had the good fortune to attend have included a big feast and a well tipped priest. Occasionally, he has also been well “tippled”. Perhaps that is because most of the Filipinos we know hail from the rural areas.
I can’t say about the aswang, one way or the other. We did walk up the dirt road from the river to our camp in the dark several times. One evening we saw a tree with hundreds, maybe thousands of fireflies gathered in the top of it. I’ve seen fireflies (lightnin’ bugs we call ’em ) all my life, but I’ve never seen them do this. Marlyn said that was a sign that the tree was home to a pugote, a shape shifting spirit. Still that tree was a mile or more from Doming’s house.
Take care,
Pete
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