In my (admittedly limited) experience, people in the Philippines take school a bit more seriously than Taiwanese people and aren’t so robotic. The general quality of education is patchy. Some of the universities are just degree mills. Some of them are probably better than Tai Da. If this university is one of the better ones, you’ll probably find it a refreshing experience.
Manila is a shithole. Imagine Taipei except with worse plumbing, no building maintenance, and taxis made from converted Hummers (I think they’re actually custom-built, but that’s what jeepneys look like). Poverty is not rife, but it’s visible. You do get the occasional old person holding out their hand for cash as an instinctive reaction to seeing a foreign face, or the occasional girl (they look like girls, anyway) offering unusual services. Food ain’t that great - street food certainly not even close to Taiwan’s. Philippine people are in general very nice, which makes it all the more depressing that petty scamming and theft are part of the national psyche. There is quite a bit of overt Catholicism - or at least a veneer of it. They’ve adopted the Catholic Church’s more poisonous edicts (such as the ones about mandatory teen pregnancy) and haven’t paid much attention to the others (thou shalt not steal, kill, etc etc).
Cost of living (except electricity) is very cheap, but you get what you pay for.
Outside of the cities (out in the sticks) is much nicer, but I get the feeling you need to watch your back in some places.
If it was me, I think I’d go for it, just for the experience. But the country will start to wear you down after a few years. It has a lot of vitality, but it’s also very depressing.