The consensus on the Philippines seems to be that they aren't as good as developers in Eastern Europe or India. I don't know how anyone could paint a whole country with such a broad brush. In reality, it's because Filipinos have such strong English skills compared to Eastern Europe or India that outsourcing companies swoop them up first and pay high salaries, leaving few competent developers for small businesses. This is especially true in Manila/Makati.
I found my team by posting in the job section on http://www.philweavers.net/forums/. I lucked out and found one guy based in Cebu who is flat-out amazing. He gets paid a percentage of the projects we do, and it's on par with American wages. He found 10 more guys (designers, developers, data entry, content writers), and he manages them. The guys that work under him get paid $2.50-$4/hour, and they do great work. Right now we do transparent outsourcing for web design companies. They put in the face time with clients, pass us the specs, the guys in the Philippines do the work, and the companies pass off the work as their own.