Sam Kaddoura, co-founder of bitcoin exchange, BuyBitcoin.ph, said: "Those who do not want to go through the hassle of opening bank accounts or pass the requirements for credit cards will embrace bitcoins."
But in reality opening bank account is not that hard. I imagine that exchanges want from you almost the same kind of credentials as normal banks. And on top of that if Op said that internet connection is not that common among Philippine people and they also do not own smartphones it will be a long way to follow until bitcoin could be used freely.
This is just patently wrong. The average Filipino doesn't have enough of a paper trail or ID's to even pass the AML/KYC verification requirements for the banks here (I'm in Manila), let alone the initial and maintaining capital requirements to even keept the account open.
Yeah I don't know how I'm using bitcoins here in the Philippines. I have fiber optic internet in the poor Muslim island of Mindanao. Sometimes I even use bitcoins while drinking my mocha at Starbucks or Krispy Kreme. The perception of poverty is from folks that haven't been to the Southern USA. In fact it's difficult to find a Filipino not staring at their mobile device. More filipinos are on Facebook that any other nation per capita.
Mobile phone penetration here is beyond 100%, with smartphone penetration at 15% and counting. Having your own internet line is relatively easy here, with the numerous prepaid options that could give unlimited access (but certain bandwidth caps do apply), but even without it, you could rent a computer here at any of the hundreds of thousands of internet cafe's that have sprung up around the archipelago starting at $0.23 USD/hr