Before i post my opinion on this thread, was born in Philippines and at 12 years old, moved to US in 1987.
Basketball is the number 1 sport in Philippines, past and present. The pro league and the college associations can be rank as 1 and 2, then follow by boxing, bowling, martial arts, etc...Basketball got the most coverage, whether its tv, radio, or newspapers. In the city, most neighborhoods have their own basketball court or you will see a basketball rim on the side of the street. Even in the province, small towns like where i grew up, have 3-4 basketball courts. The pro league used to play most of the year, meaning 11-12 months, divided in 3 conferences. This mean that each conference is like 3 smaller season play. They changed it a few years ago, i believed for the reason to accomadate international competitions.
Billiards/pool are one of the sports that some Filipinos play. If you go to a city, just like here in the US, there are sports bar that have billiards and pool. If you to the provinces, its just a pool hall. There are currently top ranked and world champions that are Filipinos.
The sports of bowling, all i can tell about find a bowling alley in my province is that i knew only of 1 as a kid. But now a few have existed but only in the bigger towns, mostly located near or in a mall. There were also bowling champs back then.
Boxing also get some media attention before Pacquiao. As a kid, remember watching boxing late at nights, reading it newspapers. I say boxing gets the 2nd most media attention but not as big as basketball gets.
MMA has been around Philippines since around the time of 2000-03, where the first MMA organization was born. They are now getting more media coverage compare to back then.
Basketball is more popular cuz its played 9-10 months out of the year. You can't say that for boxing. The problem also lies with the media networks. While they do cover boxing, it is due to the popularity of Pacquiao. But from my observations, they don't show that much sports coverage. Basketball is the only regular sports show. The media networks are more interested in tv soap operas, news coverage, and entertainment shows(comedy, contest, etc...). They have sports shows but there are no ESPN or Fox Sports.
Volleyball also is one of the sports that is not popular in media but where Filipinos play. There is at least a volleyball leauge in towns during summer. Even in college, there is now a beach volleyball. Other sports were Filipinos participate, whether its just for recreation, tennis(mostly welll of financially), badminton, ping pong, and baseball. There was also a summer softball league in my hometown in the 80's.
As far as my opinion on the ranking of popularit in sports:
Media coverage - basketball, boxing, billiard, beach volleyball, bowling.
Filiipinos participating - basketball, volleyball, billiard, bowling.
and almost everyone i know have at least 1 so i say its a little bit true lol.
