I'll admit, I am not the smartest person in the world. But after my first "relationship" experience in the Philippines, I was getting smarter; not so quick to trust, and looking at the local economics and culture with more perspective when it came getting involved with a girl. Certain realities are always in play.
It was not long before marilyn exposed her true intentions. I was watching with an eye for deception, allowed her to play out her cards and then called her on it.
She was an older student in a local university, a 25 year old single mom trying to raise her child and improve her life. As it turned out she was a user and skillfull manipulater. It only took me a few weeks to get wise to her tricks, and she never actually lived with me, a good thing as it turned out.
Some of the Filipinas who are not so honest when looking for "their foreigner", can have a series of tactics to throw off the unsuspecting guy. They can indeed be very patient, and Marilyn was. She never asked for money, even offered to pay for lunch a few times. What I didn't know at first but suspected, was that she had another foreigner on the string. She was skillful enough to admit that she had another previous UK guy as a friend before she met me. She even admitted to taking money from him for her schooling. What I was really suspicious of was her sneaky behaivior. she would be careful not to be seen with me on certain occasions. I began to surmise there was more to her than met the eye. As it turned out she also had a Filipino boyfriend in town.
The set up:
It happened when she left my house after having lunch to go take an exam at school. A few minutes later she called frantcally exclaiming she had an outstanding bill for uniforms from the school and it had to be paid before taking the exam. I was faced with making a quick descision, I agreed to pay the 1500 Pesos, and then set out to investigate.
She thought she had me, but for 25 USD (at the time)I was willing to give her some rope, and or the benefit of the doubt.
After that, I played detective, letting her think that she had me fooled. I looked in her purse and found a reciept for tuition for 1500 Pesos. Hmmm...
I also found a letter to the previous boyfriend now back in the UK asking for 20,000 Pesos. Her plan, near as I could surmize was to take his money and bank it, then get me to make time payments for various "emergencies" and get paid twice for her educational costs. Well I did not take kindly to that. I began to think like a Filipino.
The plan I hatched was to get her to break up with the guy in the UK, (he had no idea he was being fleeced), and save him from losing his money, then tell her to hit the bricks.
The sad part was that she used her daughter as a pawn in all this, it was quite an act. An act played out time and again here. I played along for a week or so, but was very careful not to leave her in the house alone, or give her any more cash! I would have to be clever, as it turned out things went quite well...
Originally Posted by jimeve
