Weekly Recap

Here's a recap of last week's lessons.

Earthquakes and the Philippines

1. The Philippines is prone to earthquakes. In fact, 20 earthquakes are recorded daily, and Filipinos report feeling 4 to 5 earthquakes per week. There have been 90 destructive earthquakes in the last 400 years–that's one catastrophic earthquake every 4.4 years. So better be ready for the big one.

2. Only buy properties from trusted developers you know wouldn't cut corners in the construction. As seen in Tokyo, good quality buildings built in the 70s withstood the magnitude 9 earthquake in 2011.

3. If you live in a condo, don't panic if the building starts swaying–it's actually a good sign that it sways. For this reason, shorter buildings are more dangerous, according to Philvocs.

4. A property located 50 meters away from the fault is not in any way safer than a property located 6 meters away. What's important is the property is located more than 5 meters from both sides of the fault because the fault is where the land will split up.

5. Structural failure can occur for reasons other than being built on top of the fault: land erosion (what happened in Baguio) and soil liquefaction. The institute that pioneered catastrophe modeling warns that Metro Manila is among the highest areas with a high susceptibility to soil liquefaction.

BIR CAR

1. The BIR can chase after fraudulent individuals even decades after the crime/non-payment was committed.

2. Getting the title transferred to the buyer's name is not an assurance that he was able to get away with the crime. In last Friday's post, the case was filed after eight years when a "confidential informant" reported it to the BIR.

3. The BIR shall implicate both the seller and the buyer for the non-payment of taxes. Thus, the seller must still be involved even after getting the money from the buyer.