As the third largest nation of English speakers, the Philippines has become a popular destination for English language learning, especially for people in South East Asia. Yet, however you dress up popularity, we have to look beyond the headlines and see what kind of narrative is being constructed. A closer examination of detailed empirical evidence from published research studies highlights issues that are often glossed over in newspaper headlines. This paper discusses the problems concerning the commodification of English language teaching in the Philippines, that is, cost factors, learner expectations and satisfaction on the courses and quality of teaching, Filipino teachers' (FTs) pronunciation and the Philippine English (PhE) accent vis-a-vis the native speaker norms, and their ramifications on pedagogy and other users of wider sociolinguistic significance. Recommendations for stakeholders will be provided.