Listing Eligibility and Removal Policy
In one line: Who can be listed on AskPinoy, where the information comes from, how regulated trades and professions are handled, and how to get a listing corrected or removed.
Last updated
The short version
- We list Filipino-owned and Filipino-serving businesses, and we take the owner's word for it. No proof of anyone's background, ever.
- We list broadly and verify narrowly: a licence shows when we've checked it on the register, and a listing without one says so.
- Immigration consultants publish only after a CICC or law society check.
- Anyone can ask for a listing to be corrected or removed. Removal takes up to 5 business days.
1. Who can be listed
Filipino-owned. At least 50% owned, directly or through a holding company, or controlled by people who identify as Filipino by birth, descent or citizenship. Self-identification is the whole test. We never ask for proof of ethnicity, and never will.
Filipino-serving. Not Filipino-owned, but at least one of:
- staff serve customers in Tagalog or another Philippine language;
- the main products or menu are Filipino;
- the service is specific to the community: remittance, balikbayan boxes, Philippines-related immigration.
Having Filipino customers alone isn't enough. Filipino-serving businesses are welcome from any owner and are always labelled "Filipino-serving".
Sole proprietors and home-based businesses qualify. Home-based listings never show an exact address, only the area served.
Who attests. The owner does, on the claim form or to us on the confirmation call or visit. The label is public, and the owner can withdraw it any time — email us, and it comes off within 2 business days. Until an owner attests, a listing suggested by the community shows "Shared by the community" and no ownership label.
2. Where listing information comes from
Allowed:
- the owner, on the claim form, on the phone or in person;
- the business's own website, its own Facebook page, or a Google Business Profile the business manages, found by a person searching Google;
- a storefront or sign seen in person;
- a suggestion from a kababayan through "Add a business".
Not allowed, ever:
- copying reviews, photos, descriptions or anything else from Google Maps, Yelp, Yellow Pages or any other directory;
- scraping tools, bulk downloads, API exports;
- photos from Google, from third-party pages or from customers.
Every listing is confirmed with the business by phone before it publishes. A phone number or address is shown only when the business publishes it itself or told us we could show it.
3. Regulated trades and professions (Ontario)
Some categories need a licence, a registration or a professional title by law. Here's how we handle them.
We list broadly and badge narrowly.
- Every regulated category except one publishes right away. Until we've checked the register, the listing carries a line on the card and the page that tells you what to ask for, such as "Ask for their ECRA/ESA licence number — every Ontario electrical contractor has one. We'll show it here once we've checked it."
- Once we've found the number on the regulator's own register, that line becomes "Licence checked · {register} {number} · {month}".
- Immigration consultants are the one exception. They publish only after we've found them on the CICC register or a law society directory, because giving paid immigration advice without authorisation is against the law. The category opens once three checked consultants are listed.
A listing's own claims are checked before they show. If a listing's name or description claims a credential ("licensed", "certified", "CPA", "RMT", "MTO-approved", "Dr."), we set that claim aside until we see the number on the register, or the listing publishes without it. A handyman who tells us they do electrical, gas or drain work is checked on the ESA or TSSA register, or that work comes out of the listing.
We don't call you something we haven't checked. For categories where the name itself is a protected title or a licensed business type (electrician, HVAC contractor, lawyer or paralegal, real estate, mortgage, insurance, dentist, doctor, car dealer, travel agency, funeral home, caregiver agency, immigration consultant), search results and the page's structured data describe the listing as a "Filipino business" until the licence is checked. The category and the "ask" line still show on the page, side by side.
Ontario categories and registers
| Category | Register we check | Before the check, the page says |
|---|---|---|
| Immigration consultants | CICC (RCIC register) or a law society | Not published until checked |
| Lawyers and paralegals | Law Society of Ontario | Ask for their Law Society number |
| Electrical | ESA (ECRA/ESA contractor licence) | Ask for their ECRA/ESA licence number |
| HVAC, gas, refrigeration | TSSA (fuels contractor) | Ask for their TSSA contractor registration |
| Plumbing | Skilled Trades Ontario (306A); a city licence where the city requires one | Ask for their 306A certificate, and their city's licence if it requires one |
| Renovation, carpentry | City renovator or contractor licence, where the city requires one | Ask for their city's trade or renovator licence, if it requires one |
| Handyman | No register; ESA or TSSA check if they do electrical or gas | Electrical or gas? Ask for their ECRA/ESA or TSSA number |
| Real estate | RECO | Ask which brokerage they're registered with |
| Mortgage | FSRA | Ask for their FSRA licence number and brokerage |
| Insurance | FSRA (agents) or RIBO (brokers) | Ask for their FSRA or RIBO licence number |
| Accounting and tax | CPA Ontario, for the CPA title; bookkeeping is unregulated | Ask whether they're a CPA |
| Remittance / padala | FINTRAC (money services business registry) | Ask for their FINTRAC registration number before your first padala |
| Dentists | RCDSO | Ask for their college registration |
| Doctors | CPSO | Ask for their college registration |
| Caregiving (an individual PSW or companion) | No licence in Ontario; a voluntary PSW registry exists | Ask about training, references and police checks |
| Caregiver and nanny agencies | Ontario recruiter or temporary help agency licence | Ask for their Ontario recruiter licence. An agency may not charge a caregiver a fee to be placed |
| Car dealers | OMVIC | Ask for their OMVIC registration |
| Auto repair | Skilled Trades Ontario (310S) | Ask for the technician's 310S certificate |
| Driving schools | MTO-approved Beginner Driver Education list | Ask if their course is MTO-approved (BDE) |
| Travel agencies | TICO | Ask for their TICO registration number |
| Funeral and repatriation | Bereavement Authority of Ontario | Ask for their BAO licence |
No licence question: restaurants, lechon, turo-turo, bakeries, groceries, catering, balikbayan box, settlement services (non-profit), events, photo and video, hair salons, barbers, beauty and wellness, cleaning, gardening and landscaping, painting, moving, tutoring. Nothing is checked, so nothing is claimed. Two things we watch for anyway: a listing offering massage therapy is checked on the CMTO register, and pesticide spraying or lead or asbestos removal in a listing is checked before it shows.
This page is general information, not legal advice. The registers are the source of truth. Check them yourself before you hire.
Other places. These rules are for Ontario. Before we launch in another province or country, we set out that place's registers and rules, and this page grows a section for it.
4. Cities we haven't launched in yet
You can add a business anywhere in the world. If we're not live in that city, the listing waits: it isn't published, has no page and can't be reviewed. The owner can claim it and get the page ready, and it publishes when the city launches. If you ticked the box, we email you once on launch day. If nobody has touched a waiting listing for 24 months, we email once to ask whether the business is still open; with no answer after 30 days, we delete it.
5. What we don't list
- Paid immigration help without CICC or law society authorisation.
- A listing whose credential claim doesn't check out on the register.
- Multi-level marketing.
- Anything that breaks the Review Guidelines or the Terms: fake reviews, harassment, illegal content.
- A business that has asked to be removed.
6. Corrections, removal and suspension
Send a correction. Anyone can email ramuel@askpinoy.com with a correction to any listing. We check it and update the page if it's right. The owner never learns who sent it.
Ask us to remove it. The owner, the person named on the listing, or anyone who sees a problem can email ramuel@askpinoy.com to ask. We act within 5 business days. A sole proprietor's listing is deleted outright, not hidden. Photos added with permission come down on request the same way.
Closing your business. Owners can close their listing at any time — email us and it's done within 5 business days.
Suspension. We suspend a listing when a required licence expires or a credential claim fails the register, when an owner keeps posting customers' personal information in replies, or when the Terms are broken. We tell the owner why. A suspended listing comes back once the problem is fixed.
Removal by us. We remove listings that aren't eligible under this policy. Where we can, we tell the owner first.
Questions: ramuel@askpinoy.com