the reality on the ground is in 99% of cases the extensions are only for 2 months ,,,if you are lucky you stay near an extention office with little or no costs involved ..in most cases it will be a long boat ,plane ,bus ,taxi ride ,with hotel costs involved as well …so yes in theory you can STAY inside phillipines for up to 36 months but the realty is as difficult as Thailand ..box luck if your friends found their sweet spot in Philippines and they have an office nearby to do their extensions..as your photo states Initial application in Manila …and also What it DOESNT SAY Manila only gives out 6 month extensions ,all others are discretion of officer ( sounds familiar ) and normally only 2 months…also each extention for visa is around £200 + travel,costs + hotel food costs
not any more they’re not ,,,you can only get two month extensions in Philippines nowadays as opposed to 6 months and many of these extensions cost a lot of money in travel and time to get to the offices as not all are online