A review of Chinese finds in Philippines after the first millenium CE, indicating the long presence of Chinese, probably traders, in the country.
The search for early Chinese traders
Philippine Daily Inquirer, 08 February 2013
The Philippines is quite out of the way unlike other maritime countries in Southeast Asia. It also has smaller communities than Malaysia and Indonesia.
But due to their business acumen and perseverance in selling their goods and bringing whatever useful raw materials back to their kingdom, the Chinese braved the seas and started trading with our forebears.
As early as 1144 A.D., the Chinese already had names for the entire archipelago—Mayi—and certain islands like Pai-P’u-yen for the Babuyan Islands, Liu-hsin for Luzon and Pa-lao-yu for Palawan.
According to experts of Southeast Asian history, it was not the Chinese who first traded with Filipinos but the other way around.
Full story here.