I was around 2 months this year in Philipines, mostly Manila. I was staying @ burgos street in the red light district alto red light district wasn't the reason I was staying there for.
Basically everything was near... shop with fresh fruits, a lot of eating out places, very nice internet cafe, nice hotel in which I was staying before - "makati palace". I did rent a room for a month like 45,000 peso which was around 1K$.
I was playing there mostly live in Hilton and the card room there called "Metro club".
And yes the city is huge, dirty, and you have little sense of what's going on but to take a cab and ride for 30 minutes and pay 4$ is why I liked it so much...
It sux if you don't know anyone there, but if you can play and go out at night with some filipino girls which I think are the most beautiful of asians then it's worth it.
Cebu -
I was there around 1 week coz the cash games were very low staked... game for 120$ buy-in wasn't around the clock and was considered high stakes. You were getting free alcohol, deserts, food for playing at that stakes and you were the "high-roller"... there was one game with businessmen,politicians in waterfront casino on the weekend when the minimum buy-in was 500$, maximum 1,500$ blind were 2,5$/5$ and people who were playing there were the worst ever...
"You called my allin preflop with A2??? And you get lucky over my KJ?!? fu!" for a pot over 3K$.
I did enjoy philipines a lot... people are very friendly, girls are extremely nice and you can feel like the king of the universe there. I am considering renting an appartment there next year to go crazy about playing online but we'll see... didn't decide yet.
And yes... Boracay is sweet