Notice that everytime you visit Google.com, you’re automatically redirected to Google.com.ph? And you will notice that results from Google.com and Google.com.ph will not be the same in terms of results placement.
So what contributes to the difference?
1) Web Hosting location or IP
2) ccTLD or Country Code Top Level Domain
It means that if your site is hosted in the Philippines (or an to an IP that is known to be assigned to the Philippines), Google.com.ph will favor you more in the search results.
The same is true for .PH domains. Assuming that everything else is the same, sites on .PH domains will rank higher when searched thru Google.com.ph.
So, aside from the branding (and Intellectual Property) spiel, you have another reason to use .PH domains for your site (IF you are targetting visitors from the Philippines).
If only the cost of registration would go down a little bit. (As I have always discussed this with their Channel Manager and I hope they are re-considering the cost aspect.)
(* SERP - search engine results page)
[tags]doamins, ccTLD, TLD, PH, search, local[/tags]
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It would really help that they lower the cost. My first choice for my domains were originally .ph, but because the costs were prohibitive I decided to stick with the TLD.
I think something’s in the works.
;) 
Check out what I think about .PH:
http://racoma.net/archives/comph-why-not/
I was thinking of buying another domain with .ph extension but the price is just too high.
As long as the current owner of .PH is in power, not. I’m not giving him another cent.
Something offtopic…
Why did your remove the redirect from your homepage to this blog? This could affect your SERP.
A lot of things:
1) Both URLs have PR5 already, so two pages with PR5s is better than one.
2) People have been linking to this blog without the “/blog/” so it’s not counted in Technorati. I thought separating the two will prompt them to link here properly.
3) I wasn’t doing the right re-directs before (proper 301) and it was actually hurting my content because Google looks at it as duplicate content.
4) I thought by aggregating the content of my other blogs in the main domain, I’d pass some of the link juice to them.
Could you share your thoughts why it was a wrong move to do?
Mahal talaga ang .ph domain.. used to have one but considering the big price drop for .com .net and .org domains I shifted back to a .com. I was able to get a .com domain good for 3 years and it costs much more lower than a years worth for a .ph domain