You probably went with the wrong people, went to places that didn't cook the food nicely, and hang out at the wrong places when you went there. Many foreigners love Filipino food. Or it's probably sometimes some people just don't like the the flavour of the dishes from a particular country.
Just like some of my friends, some of of my Chinese friends just don't like the taste of Western food, my Romanian friend don't like Thai food, I don't like some of the Chinese food. About the culture, obviously you don't know the culture of the Filipinos well enough. Do you even know some of it's history?
You can never compare it to other Asian countries because it has a unique history. You can never judge a nations culture unless you've actually immersed yourself with the culture and spent time with the locals.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.