I was there a couple of year ago and it was a cool experience. Manila is pretty safe, although like everywhere you'll get some mean looks from time to time, but in general you're well received. The malls and airports have tighter security than I've ever seen anywhere. Only one time in Manila did my "spidey sense" go off, and I got my sensei and I out of there quick, but I was probably being overly cautious.

Before that, we took a 16 hour car-trek to Sorsogon through some sketchy areas. I was the only one who wasn't asian, so I stood out like a sore thumb. We passed through Muslim, rebel and bandit territory, which I was told to hide when we passed the guys with machine guns. We did have a couple of hired body guards with us but never had any trouble even when we stopped. As an American, I got a lot of attention, but none of it bad. One woman tried to hook me up with her 12 year old daughter, but of course I declined.

Once in Sorsogon, it was totally chill. The guys we were visiting were bigwigs in politics over there, so no one was messing with any of us...and honestly I never saw any situations that I felt I needed the influence. Most of the time, I just had women and children following me around because I was "so white". Made it difficult to take a leak, since the kids especially would follow me everywhere even around the building to piss.

Final word though, if something does happen...meaning someone pisses you off...take every possible avenue to avoid conflict. Guns are very common and it is a knife culture, so fights are rarely empty handed from what I understand. I don't mean to scare you with that comment, just inform you. You're probably in more danger driving than anything. Red lights just mean "beep...I'm coming through anyway."

I think any place is unsafe when bad luck strikes. :(

Never went to the Philipines, so I can't tell :S

I have been to the Philippines 21 times in the last 5 years... In fact I will be there again next week. It is safe. Stay away from Mindanao

yes its safe in manila.... just bring your four leaf clover, mustard seed, horse shoe, or any lucky charm you can have....

My advise to you is not to look directly in the eyes of the people who might be giving you mean looks. Be humble in your travels because some filipinos can be arrogant assholes.

some [insert any nationality] can be arrogant assholes

you have a problem with brownish people?

do you know how many filipino's are in Hawaii moron?

having lived in Canada, so can you backwards fucks up north.

I'll tell you what... the average Filipino is alot nicer than the average American or Canadian.

this philippines 50 was sponored by..............

yeah except $5 submissions will probably try and pick you up to do some cheap HTML on the streets