Buy him a MagicJack phone. It'll have your area code...he links it to his computer, when you call his MagicJack phone you'll be calling a local number. This worked for phone calls to a friend in Japan.

There's a company called Onesuite (www.onesuite.com) that lets you buy long distance minutes in 10 dollar blocks. The current rate for the Philippines is 12.5 cents per minute... I don't know if that's cheap or not compared to phone cards.

I used to use it for years. My family still uses it (including my mom and my aunt who are severely technology impaired) and plenty of friends with out-of-country relatives and friends use it too. No scams, no frauds. Nobody I know has never had a problem with it, it's really just straight forward and easy.

Hope that helps

Google Voice. 11 cent/min to Phillipines landline, 17 cents to mobile.

Works with your cell phone.

Don't ever do those calling-cards, they are massive ripoffs.

I use Onesuite too but never called the Philippines. Whatever you do, don't use your mobile to call directly because its expensive. Check if you have (cellphone) unlimited minutes on weekends. If you have then you can use your mobile phone to call the calling card access number without using up your cell phone minutes. I bet you have a computer with internet, then you can use VoIP for calling too. Onesuite has a VoIP feature aside from the usual phone card service.

I've had good luck for the last four years calling Nicaragua and the UK with Peanuts LD. It's low rent, but they've never jacked me on minutes and are super straight forward: you get the minutes you pay for, pure and simple. There's no worrying about rolling shit from month to month or any of that nonsense. Here's their website: http://www.peanuts-ld.com/

MCI phone cards are legit and have decent rates.
http://consumer.mci.com/prepaid_cards/index.jsp

Open a Skype account. They provide you with a unique number, with which you can use your Skype Balance as a calling card to use from your cellphone.

https://support.skype.com/category/SKYPE_TO_GO/

Google Voice