when I read this thread I thought maybe it's worth sharing this story:
Just before I got married I had an American friend (well he was actually a father of a chatmate). I didn't really know him that much and likewise. But he called me one day in November and aked me a huge favor of tracking down his fiancee in Cebu. He said they we're set to be married in January of the next year and although he has never met this girl he trusted her so much and believed everything she said, in short he was besotted with a virtual girlfriend. He thought everything was all set for their wedding, He sent her close to P300,000 to cover the expenses of the wedding and more than that before to set her up on a business (he actually thought she owns a grocery)!!!! He said he was worried she was hiding because whenever he calls her house she is always away so he feels like she is hiding from him.
He wanted to make sure he still has a bride to come to when he flies to the Phils in January and he also knows that I was a law graduate so he trust I might have an idea of how to deal with her myself. He offered to pay for my plane ticket and hotel. But I was really scared to do this because I've never even flown before and Cebu is just too far for me so I was thinking twice. However, I felt sorry for him so I said yes. I did fly on my own and tried to locate her address and within a day I found her house and there was no grocery but a very small sari-sari store. She tried to hide from me as well but when I served her housemate a demand letter she ended up calling me at the hotel later in the day and confided that she used the money to pay their house because it was going to be foreclosed by the bank and she couldnt tell her American boyfriend. I think that was really cruel!
Anyway, I told my American friend this and I got him in touch with a local lawyer whom I gave a copy of the demand letter to for the filing of appropriate charges against the girl. From then on, I flew back to Manila and on to Naga. I didn't know what happened after that. The last time I talked to him on the phone he thanked me and he said he would still fly to the Philippines in January anyway he's got a ticket already but not to get married to face her in court.
So what do you think of that?
