“Merry Christmas” Banned At Philippines Airports
Wed, Dec 8, 2010
If you plan on visiting the Philippines over the holidays, don’t expect the immigration officers to say “Merry Christmas”… they’re banned from it.
That’s right, the Immigration Bureau is banning officers at all Philipino airports from saying “Merry Christmas” because they don’t want visitors to think the officers are asking for a bribe.
Apparently this stems from a tradition in which kids wish relatives a merry Christmas in order to get gifts. And somehow the Immigration Bureau thinks every visitor to the Philippines will know about this tradition and assume that an officer’s holiday spirit is really just a demand for a bribe.
Okay, we’ve all heard horror stories about the cops in the Philippines being corrupt, but we can’t see how “Merry Christmas” is code for “Give me money or I’ll put you in jail on a bogus charge.”
Fortunately, visitors aren’t banned from wishing the immigration officers a Merry Christmas, so maybe you can bribe them for a gift.
Jetpacker 
Hahaha I didn’t know this. Where’d you get the news? I recently got back from Vietnam and there was no merry christmas at the airport. Maybe it’s too early to tell if this is really true.
It’s gotta be true! It’s less than weeks before Christmas and they didn’t wish you a merry Christmas. Subsequently, you didn’t have to turn over a bribe. So it all worked out in the end.