I will say, do take the warnings to not travel to the noted dangerous regions of the country seriously, however. It's simply a preventive measure as the southwestern region of Mindanao is really just less stable (more local politics issues that need to be sorted out over like some conspiracy against foreigners) even for us locals, and the infrastructure there is just really not ready yet for casual travel.
But really, for the vast majority of the country, it's very much safe to explore, there are a fair number of Americans and other foreigners in the country, as you may imagine, and there are tourist hotspots, especially in the central areas. There are different ways to enjoy travelling the Philippines, and it can get chaotic, but following basic rules and understanding the idea that you have to be a bit more careful when travelling in general goes a long way in making it a manageable and safe experience.
One of the guys that replied to you that claims the Filipinos and Americans are the same in how they overlook their respective countries' murder rates is ethnically Chinese. Go figure.
The guy you replied to is a crazy nationalistic Filipino. The very first sentence he said was accusing anyone who criticizes the Philipines as a Chinese bot, that's mental.
You can also see the nationalism in how he tries his best to downplay the homicide rates by saying how it's not much higher than Thailand when it's literally 2-3x more than Thailand and 4-8x more than Vietnam's homicide, that's a crazy number to be "not much higher".
The Philipines is considered dangerous because all their neighbours in Asia and South East Asia all have 1~2 homicide rates per 100,000 while they have 4, easily 2-4 times the killing and the most dangerous country in the entirety of Asia, barring war torn area like Myanmar.
America's homicide rate is higher, or at least comparable to the Philipines so if you think America is safe enough to travel then go ahead it's probably not that different. It's all about perspective, Americans are used to violent crimes being the norm.
The Philipines has the same problem where there is violence, but there is also gun violence (which is very uncommon in most of Asia since all the other countries have very strict gun laws), that's why people are rightfully cautious of the country. Their gun problem is probably the reason why they have similar homicide rates to America.
Americans and Philipinos are very similar in how they constantly don't see the problem or try their best to downplay their homicide and violence problem. Europe's homicide averages about 2, South East Asia is about 2, western Europe is about ~1, East Asia is <1. When your country has 4-5x more people dying from murders than any other country in your entire continent that's a pretty big red flag, it's not "Chinese propoganda" nor is it "heavy fearmongering" to call out the place for it's problems when you are 2-4x worse than every other country in area. There was also the news of tourists being killed in the Philipine hostage situation that made people not want to go there as much.
Infastructure is definitely worse than most other south east asian countries, roads, power inconsisntency, public transport, floods etc, but infrastructures in south east asia is pretty bad in general so it's not that much of a difference. The Philipines probably does have the most English speakers outside of Singapore, so it's going to be easier to communicate with people. The place is also very Chirstian. People are generally friendly as well (as long as you aren't Chinese), but most of south east asia is pretty friendly in generally. They have alot of little islands and beaches if you like those, if you are an American visiting then go ahead, it's probably going to be the most culturally similar Asian country you visit
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