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"A 68-year-old German man was stabbed to death by an unidentified attacker at his residence in the central Philippines, a police report said Friday. Herman Kruse was watching television with his Filipino wife at their house in Daan Bantayan town in Cebu province..."  http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/275950,german-man-stabbed-to-death-in-central-philippines.html

For the past week, the yahoo boards have been full of the discussions of the "British national" who was murdered in his home seven days back... was he stupid to have left the door open (no signs of forcible entry...? ) or was the foreigner an evil person who deserved to die (so who cares how it happened) or did his wife kill him (http://www.aklanon.net/news/police-suspect-wife-killed-briton-husband.html).

The week before that, it was another foreigner, near Manila, killed while his wife was having tea next door.

It's interesting to watch the conversations - some people say in ten years in the Philippines they've never had any trouble whatsoever, etc.  The next response is that these people either don't understand what's going on around them ("ignorance is bliss... and a ticket to survival...") or are trying to justify an existence that is fraught with danger - but still less unpleasant than returning to some situation they've run away from (?) ... Then the conversation turns to how the wife was the one who killed him, or had him killed by her boyfriend or even her other husband ...

Did the foreigner insult the wrong person?  What did he say?  Did the foreigner sexually abuse prepubescent girls?  Or physically mature but underage girls?  Or did he get angry at his wife?

Unfortunately, in most of these cases, we just do not find out even one tenth of the story.  We read the discussions as if they are a Rorschach test, and even our reading of the discussions is a Rorschach test of ourselves.  Expats are such an odd lot -- the odd bunch who never quite fit in at home -- it's like trying to herd rottweilers to get them to support one another and share perspectives calmly.

One thing that is certain is that life expectancy in the Philippines is reduced when one has enemies; and that enemies can be made.

Whether or not some particular foreigners were poorly-behaved in the actions that made them enemies, I have no idea.  But the importance of remembering everyday to try to avoid making enemies - this is something Filipinos wake up and go to sleep thinking about - at least the ones who are still here with us - and we have to follow that example to increase our life expectancy too.