Public transport in the Philippines is very easy to use and there are plenty of public buses which run between cities. Sometimes they are air conditioned and sometimes not and the prices vary accordingly. Coaches often show a film but in the case of mine 5 hour journey to Iloilo it was a history of Philippine boxer Manny Piqiao. I hadn’t heard of him before being forced the screening of his mostly successful bouts. What a great guy he is and by the end of the journey I was a fan – a big fan. The following week the on board bus tv showed a live fight for one of the world titles. I was cheering and willing him to win with every upper cut, jab and body punch. I was surprised how I was enjoying boxing. And he won – hooray. 
Even the buses which are not air conditioned are not too hot because the windows are always open so you can get a really good breeze coming through. I love using public transport because it feels more like you are living in the community. I must admit that being squeezed with 27 other passengers into a minibus built to carry 24 people (in Cebu) is not terribly enjoyable and having my spine realigned in a motorbike tricycle taxi was not at all enjoyable, they are all experiences. People couldn’t believe that I wanted to go from Manila to Cebu overland using public transport but for me, travelling is all about the journey not the destination.
Why arrive quickly in a place when you can arrive slowly and make friends and see the views and eat the street food and have time to think, to empty your mind. How can flying do all that? Some of those bus and ferry journeys I made were painful, both physically and mentally. 
But by the same measure some of those journeys will stay with me for a long time – how many flights can we remember?
The prices of the buses especially are very cheap indeed, just a handful of coins for a short journey and when it comes to motorbike taxis, it’s a lot cheaper if you share but it can be a very unpleasant experience when the driver packs 6 people into one.