Have you ever eaten Philippino food? yikes
I was stationed in Korea, not the Philippines, but will you look at the prices?! Even in Cebu (the second largest city) one can live like a King or Queen on $1000-1500 a month, including rent, food, servants (maid, driver, gardener) etc.. In smaller cities and towns it costs even less...
I actually like many Filipino foods and try to eat it at least once a week. For example, tinolang manok (Chicken soup with melon), tinolang baka (beef soup with ginger and cabbage), pinakbit (vegetable stew with pork and NO bittermelon), monggo (mung bean soup with creamery squash), tocino (panfried sweetened pork), longganisa (sweet & spicy sausages), pancit (panfried noodles with vegetables and meats and shrimp), ginataang alimango (crab in coconut milk), lechon (roasted pig on a spit).
I can think of at least a dozen more that are delicious and I don’t know of anyone who has ever not loved the food when we had it for parties.