What are your priorities?
You can live cheap, but you will not have the infrastructure support you are used to here. I would consider it if I were in my twenties and considered myself relatively immortal but now... While MS may be considered a third world country by some, it suits me and I will happily stay here and travel for a visit to places like the PI. YMMV
Comments like this one are Dead Bang-on accurate. When I moved to Mexico 20 years ago, I thought "I'm in for some sun!" However, over the years, there is NO DOUBT you start to miss some of the simple conveniences the U.S. or Canada have built-in to their lifestyles that the rest of the World has yet to catch up to.
Mexico is a lot closer to the U.S. that Manila, but you would be SURPRISED at the number of simple everyday items we just don't have here. Root Beer comes to mind. Mountain Due. Locktite. Decent phone service. Electric power that stays on. Water you can slurp in the shower and not get really sick from -- or maybe not -- it's a crap shoot (literally, because there is OFTEN crap in the water).
I mean, there IS the sun, that part is correct. And the maids, of course, although I personally don't have a maid. Too expensive, and they can't do anything I can't do myself. I have a cleaning lady come by once a week and do the "deep clean", that's about it. Oh, and since I got married, the wife helps keep things clean and tidy as well, so that doesn't hurt either.
In the last 20 years I have seen NO END of Canadian and American Expats come here declaring that they are "out of it for GOOD!" who go right back to it (Canada or the U.S.) after only a few years because, basically, they just can't STAND the Banana Republic mentality, attitudes, and never-get-anywhere pace of life that they THOUGHT they were looking for in the first place.
My advice? Go on an EXTENDED vacation without actually BUYING a place in the Phillipines. See how you like it. See how the natives' attitudes towards you CHANGE when you are no longer a tourist, but live there. And it does, believe me. Consider this; you're living in Chipmunk, Alberta, Canada, and working in an Ice Cream Store. You're a Canadian. A bunch of...well, pick one, Ukrainian tourists for example, come by your store EVERYDAY and buy Ice Cream. They whine and moan about the cold, and why don't more people polka, yadda, yadda, yadda, but they do it in Ukrainian! Okay, fine, they're buying, they're tourists, it's cool.
Now, same group, five years later. They've MOVED in, they're staying, and they still whine and moan about everything Canadian (although they no longer buy so much Ice Cream), but they still do it in Ukrainian. Guess what? They aren't going to be too popular.
Same thing happens here. Don't let anyone tell you that Mexicans can't be as predjudiced as anyone else, once you MOVE here, you better get the Spanish down, or you are in for some real fun times (and I mean that with all the sarcasm possible). Most people from Canada and the U.S. surprisingly don't get the Spanish down near well enough, and they get sick of being treated poorly. You often hear "I didn't used to get treated this way!" Well, of course not. THEN, you were a tourist. NOW, you LIVE here. They're gonna crap all over you if you don't turn on the light bulb. I am pretty sure that the Phillipines aren't going to be a whole lot different, although I have never been there, I admit.
The "expat thing" suits some people. Others don't get along with it so much. A lot of the problem is that things are
so different from home, and there's a lot of stuff you used to do or used to be able to buy that you just no longer can and it sorta starts to suck. I still like the sun...but I have to admit, AS I GET OLDER, I get crabbier that things just don't seem to change for the better at all. Maybe someday I too will end up going back in frustration, or maybe not.
But if I were you, I'd spend some considerable TIME living in the place without making any major financial investments to see how things stack up. You won't lose your shirt that way if you suddenly find out that things aren't what they cracked up to be. AND, if you find you like it, you'll know a lot more about what's going on around you and get better deals that you ever would "fresh off the boat" as it were.
Oh, da shame of it all... 
