Well, after a minute on Wikitravel, I can tell Math was slightly wrong about 2 things. There are not 9000 islands but closer to 7000. The country was conquered by the Spanish indeed (for 300 years) and the English did occupy Manila for 2 years. But it was mostly the Americans who declared it was their colony for 30 years that explains why English is so widely spoken.

We are in Manila now. It feels good to be back to cheap prices, especially after Singapore :)