Yes, Philippines started to recognize bitcoin. When the news regarding the Baacoor unemployed dad became millionaire because of his engagement in bitcoin, it spreads a ray of hope to the Filipino citizen.
Unfortunately, there are also some news spread in Philippine television who take advantage of bitcoin fame and use it to scam people.
On the other hand, those news like this will alter those bad news that damage bitcoin reputation made by bad people who only want to scam other people.
As a Filipino citizen, if bitcoin will be legalize on the Philippines, for sure, I am one of million beneficiaries of it.
As far as I know the use of bitcoin is already legalized in the Philippines. And there are only two exchanges that have been approved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as well as the Securities and exchange commission to continue such trade. There are already KYC and AML regulations and other policies being sent to those exchanges to comply. You can do some research on google so you can see that bitcoin is already legal in the Philippines but this is released with a warning from BSP that investing in bitcoins will be subjected to volatility and is very risky.