The Philippines is a Island group with hundreds of small islands and a few big ones like Cebu which makes the use of planes necessary to get around cheap flights to the Philippines to Manila from mainland Asia like Bangkok and Phnom Penh are very expensive. I fould getting a Air Asia flight to Singapore and then a Tiger Air flight to Clark air base in Angeles City was the cheapest flights to the Philippines that I could find. Round trip worked out to a little over $250 USD.Singapore is a good hub as there are no airport fees and they even give you free internet in the waiting areas Clark just raised theirs in Oct 2006 to 50,000 pesos. Bangkok is set to charge 700 Baht up from 500 baht

You can drive form Manila to Angeles city but many take a comuter flight to save time I would say with the exception of Puerto Galara that you are as a traveler going to want to fly. Manila has 3 airports al very close to each other when they get the new Ninoy Aquino International airport there is bound to be some confussion so be sure to check that when you come in sothat you know which airport to go to in Manila it could take an hour to get to the right terminal ad the security is tight at all airports in the Philippines
they have a couple of small airlinesthat offer the cheapest flights in the Philippines Cebu Pacific and Seair the national carrier Philippines Air has some good rates as well to the bigger airports
.