Jim,
I never knew this fact: The Philippines in the far east pacific is the third largest English speaking country in the world, after the USA and Great Britain. More than 110million Filipinos have been taught from grade school to graduate studies, to speak, understand and write English.
That said, the reality is most folks who are in businesses that deal with travelers do speak English, but many others do not. My carpenter that built the boat speaks little English and my boat driver speaks less. The man who is our tour guide for the boat speaks English very well, so he is a valuable friend in communicating my needs to others. El Nido is a tourist hot spot so many folks here do speak English.