Looks like OP has called off this long-distance communication with this Filipina.
As a Filipino, most of the stuff about this country said by the Westerners here are accurate, and I'm not even bothered by them anymore because the Philippines is a rotten society deep inside, being masked under all the government propaganda of this country being some tropical paradise full of hospitable, good-natured people.
Aguila Negra is probably the most vocal about the ugly side of Filipino society, although his rhetoric is bordering on getting blackpilled. There definitely exist Filipinos who aren't like the low IQ, gullible, emotionally driven majority who would leech off the remittances of their expat relatives and put on a façade of welcoming foreigners while planning to con them behind their backs—but finding them will be searching for needles in a haystack; they're either part of the well-educated bourgeoisie or introverts like me living among the masses and having to adapt to dealing with people whose IQ is one standard deviation lower.
The Philippines is neither patriarchal nor Christian. The matriarchical aspect can easily be witnessed through the females hypergamous nature and their habit of having several kids with different fathers. The Filipino lifestyle in itself is deeply anti-Christian and consists of cheating, scamming, lying, manipulating, pre- and extra-marital sex and many other sins. All of this is not only condoned, but in many cases even encouraged. They are very good at putting up smokescreens though, due to this face thing. I've been to over 50 countries anf the Philippines (together with Cambodia and maybe the DR) ranks rock-bottom in terms of (Christian) morality
There are some born again denominations here that I respect and whose followers seem to be serious about their faith (like the Baptists and the Iglesia ni Christo) but they are small minorities. InC is a masonically inspired group in itself, for what it's worth.
Trust me, Filipino Evangelicals overwhelmingly don't consider the Catholic majority as Christian, not only on doctrinal grounds (i.e. veneration of images = idolatry), but because there can hardly be any morality or piety found among the masses. Many people who are baptized as Catholics but ended up converting to Protestantism, their first time being familiar with Christ and Scripture is through a Protestant church service or a "Bible study" meeting. The Catholic festivals have almost no actual religious significance whatsoever, or at least the way that Catholic Filipinos treat them as merely community celebrations without a gram of theological understanding.
The Protestant denominations in the Philippines as well as the INC, Mormons, SDAs, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc, are the only groups that are guaranteed to live a spiritual life. Not to say that there aren't imperfections among their membership, but they're the only light and salt holding back the cultural degradation of the Philippines.
A 145 IQ pinoy would rather crack jokes with you that discuss philosophy. Chances are you've met one, but wasn't able to tell. The so called intellectuals tend to parrot SJW/liberal talking points, not worth the time.
I'm not gonna claim to be that 145 IQ Pinoy, but the only people I'm able to discuss intellectual matters with are over Internet forums and social media. I used to think I was on the autism spectrum or just highly introverted, but I realized that I don't interact with the working-class folks outside for the simple reason that I share nothing in common with them to talk about.
Spot on over the Filipino "intellectuals" all just parroting woke leftist garbage they see from American social media. They're pretty much all gathered in the major universities and belong to the middle- and upper-classes, as their greater amounts of purchasing power enable them to live like Western liberals, watch globohomo media like CNN and read up SJW online outlets like VICE and HuffPost. In all my years studying in what was supposedly the best university in the Philippines, there isn't an ounce of critical thinking found among these Commie pseudo-intellectuals, and they're an insufferable, toxic, hypocritical bunch. Many of my acquaintances who would post on social media ranting about capitalism or white privilege, I would see them watching on their laptops whatever bullshit American TV show is currently popular, and they're the types to go on Starbucks or other "posh" establishments. My online right-wing comrades call them "champagne socialists" for that matter.
Generally speaking, globohomo wokeism has been steadily trickling down in Filipino society for a long time now. In fact, I wanna say that the Communist movement is still a thorn on the side and many university students who fall for Marxist delusion end up joining the rebellion in the remote jungles and mountains to fight the military. I honestly pity this country as it has to deal with
both Communist insurgents and radical Islamist terrorists. Many white guys here may not believe me on this matter, as they see the Philippines through the lens of "happy" Filipinos willing to accommodate and placate an American male expat.
The Philippine media and "intelligentsia" are totally in bed with globalism, and when Duterte became president in 2016 they straight up imported the culture war divide of America into the Philippine context and cast Duterte into the same role of villain as Trump, despite all the character and policy differences between the two men. And in last year's elections, the woman who ran for the presidency against Marcos Jr. became the figurehead of the progressive Left.
I, too, was disappointed how hard it was to find fresh produce in the Philippines. And I visited multiple islands. All you can really find is meat in heavy sauce or deep fried with giant servings of white rice. The food in the Philippines is more related to the islander/Polynesian diet. This is most likely do to the standard of living across all islands. People in the Philippines just don't have enough disposable income, hence food will be the quality that is most affordable. Also, Filipinos do not care for raw fish and the average Filipino wouldn't really be able to afford sashimi. The worst part of the Philippines was the supply chain operations. I walked into a Jollibee (Filipino equivalent of McDonald's) and there were like 5 teenage employees just sitting and texting on their phones while I waited 30 mins for my food. Terrible service.
I've also realized how terrible Filipino cuisine is in comparison to other parts of Asia, it's heavy in oil and sodium, and combined with large amounts of white rice + breads and pastries consumed by Filipinos, contributes to the high rates of diabetes, hypertension and even overweightness.
This is just one example of a foreign tourist blogger narrating her negative experience with Filipino food. She and her companions complained of headache and bloating in eating salty, oily pork.
I assumed the Food in the Philippines would be good - it was the country's geographical birthright. However, all I tasted was salty disappointment.
indianajo.com
I don't accept poverty as an excuse for the sad state of Filipino cuisine. People who can't afford to eat much protein can still compensate with a diet of vegetables + fish + legumes + fruits + root crops. I attribute this partially to insufficient infrastructure and supply chain resulting in fresh fish and other foodstuffs not being transported inland. The Philippines has no high-speed passenger rail and freight rail, for that matter. You'd often see posts on social media showing whole truckloads of potatoes or other agricultural produce going to waste because nobody was able to transport them—while commodity prices continue to stay expensive in Metro Manila.
I'm utterly shocked on how none of the pretentious pseudo-intellectuals ever bothered proposing such a basic piece of infrastructure as freight rail to solve the country's food supply problems; the Communists were all about collectivizing farms, subsidizing labor-intensive agricultural production or banning imports. I remember Marcos Jr. himself making an ambitious proposal to reduce the price of rice to 20 pesos (about a third of a dollar) per kilogram.
Electricity is also ridiculously expensive here because of government-mandated monopoly and lack of competition, and the leftists have the gall to blame it on the free market and muh evil capitalists. It's a miracle we don't have winter here and by extension a need to worry about energy costs.