This is a valid question! Why would a young, beautiful woman in her late teens, early twenties want to contract the rest of her life to some guy like you? "You" are most likely over 40, overweight and getting over a recent divorce! You might even be in your sixties and we have friends in their seventies who have wives 50 years younger than they are!

The answers are fairly obvious once you understand the Filipina and the Philippines. First of all, don't believe those stories that tell you how there are five women to every man here, it just seems that way. Have a look at the official census figures for 2004 below.

Year 2004

Men:
15-19 - 4,014,772
20-24 - 3,569,421
25-29 - 3,081,317

Women:
15-19 - 3,995,210
20-24 - 3,545,552
25-29 - 3,038,775

Philippine Census Figures

In each of the three age categories chosen there are more men then women, the latest figures maintain the same ratio, just more people for each group. If you visit the official web site (click the link above) you will see the figures are the same for every age group. There are more men then women in the Philippines!

Of course, if we look at those figures rationally, one could argue the numbers are pretty even in real terms. In other words every Filipina should be able to find a Filipino to catch and marry! So why do they choose foreigners?

Filipinas see foreign men as more stable and faithful. They consider an older man to be less likely to stray. Part of the culture here is that a married man may have one or more girlfriends or mistresses. They are known as Carreidas or Kiridas. It is a commonly held belief that this is tolerated as a part of the culture. The truth is the men tolerate it and the wives hate it! However, because this is a catholic dominated country there is no divorce and annulment is very expensive to attain. A woman would lose nearly all she has including her children if she made a fuss and her husband was more powerful than she.

He could pay the judge to award him the children, who he would hand over to his mother to raise while he continues to live his life drinking with his friends and seeing his kiridas. There are few job opportunities for women over 25 here, just look at the Job Ads in the newspapers, they all state under 25, single, etc. Click Here For Philippine Newspapers

Filipino men at all levels of society engage in the kirida behaviour. There is a saying that for every P10,000 per month a man earns (about US$200) he should have one girlfriend as well as his wife. Many men have more than one family, considering themselves to be macho studs because they have fathered several children. Little thought is given to offering the mothers and children a proper family life as while it is a sin to be an adulterer the church ignores this common practise and forbids men and women to use contraception. It is easier to "forgive" than to try and change the practise and maybe lose a few parishioners and their tithe.

The earning capacity of the average Filipino man is far below that of the average foreigner. To the Filipino, all foreigners are kanos, or Amerikanos. Even if you are British, German or Australian and have never been to America! The Filipina's logic is that if you can afford to come to the Philippines then you are rich! Much richer than the Filipino men in her barangay who can't even afford jeepney fare into town!

This means that even a man with a modest income, blue collar job or small pension is financially more attractive than most Filipino men, especially those she will be considered able to marry. The Philippines is very class conscious and there is no way a domestic helper would ever marry the son of her employer if one were from the province and the other were rich land owners. He might take her to his bed, even father children by her but he would never marry her.

A lot of Filipinos harbour the macho man ideals familiar to many Latin societies where the catholic church held sway. They will sow their wild oats and then dump the poor girl as soon as she falls pregnant, yet of course wearing a condom is beneath their status as real men! There are millions of single parents in this country, yet the practise is to hand the child over to the grandparents who raise it as their own. The child grows up thinking its mother is its older sister! The paperwork is amended, even false baptismal certificates issued to continue the fantasy. The father moves on and impregnates some more naïve young girls before finally one may tie him down to marriage. Then he starts up again with a kirida! No wonder the Filipina looks elsewhere for her lifemate.

So, the two main reasons Filipinas marry foreigners, even those many years older than themselves, are financial security and fidelity. Women all over the world marry men for the same reasons. Of course they may love them dearly too, but why not fall in love with someone who will stay faithful and give you and your children a better life than someone who won't? It is embarrassing for the Filipina to have her husband run around with other women. It is worse that her children go hungry while their father spends his paycheck on beer and other women. Of course, there are many faithful Filipino men who are good providers, but there are more than enough who are not to make the comparison valid.

To many Filipinas, western men look like the movie stars they see on TV. They all want to have children and they know if they have children from a foreigner the children will epitomize the ideals of Filipino beauty. Pale skin (like their Spanish and American colonial masters), long noses and fair hair (ditto).

You only have to watch a small town beauty pageant to see that the beautiful, dark skinned Malay-Filipina is not allowed to enter! Only if they are pale and look more Spanish or Chinese would they bother! The prejudice is that strong, it really is sad. If a Filipina, particularly a dark skinned girl from the province, marries a foreigner then her children will be pale and beautiful and she will be able to return to her barangay and show off her husband and family!

It is a proven fact that men marry someone who attracts them physically while women mostly overlook physical beauty and seek out a man who can provide them and their children with a good life. It is simply nature doing her thing and balancing things up. For many men who have been divorced and suffered at the hands of the western courts system, relax. Yes there are scammers out there. This book will help you detect them and avoid them, at the very least minimise the damage they may cause you. However, the vast majority of Filipinas are genuine, loving and marry FOR LIFE! Fil-Am marriages, or Fil-Foreigner, have a much higher success rate than any other combination.

There are horror stories of women snaring men, getting to the states then using the courts system to clean him out a second time in his life, but there are just as many stories of women suffering. Filipinas marrying men who seem to be nice guys until they get the girl back home. Then they turn her into a sex slave for themselves and their buddies and beat them mercilessly. It happens. But bad things can happen if the man marries a woman from his own country, or the Filipina marries a man she has known all her life in the barangay.

So why do Filipinas like to marry foreign men? Because many think you offer them a better life, will be more loving and faithful and less likely to stray and they know their children will be beautiful. Now ask yourself why do you want to marry a Filipina?