Diving in Philippines

No, on both counts. There is no national federation licence to buy, no national medical certificate to produce and no national logged-dive minimum. Any certification card from a recognised agency is accepted. The country's scuba commission regulates dive establishments rather than divers, so the thing worth checking is the operator's accreditation, which is what requires them to hold a written accident-management plan. Where a dive-count rule does exist it belongs to a specific marine protected area: Kimud Shoal off Malapascua is the sharpest example in this catalogue, and even there the fifty-dive figure triggers supervision and a buoyancy workshop rather than barring entry.

In the Sulu Sea, 92 nautical miles from Puerto Princesa on Palawan, and only by liveaboard. It is a statutory no-take park of 97,030 hectares whose management board is the sole body that can issue a permit, and its own rules require vessels of at least 25 gross tons, which structurally excludes day boats. The season is usually quoted as March to June. That is weather, not law: moderate northeast winds in that window calm the sea, and the park's own records show real entries from late February to late July. Conservation fees are 5,000 pesos per visitor plus a vessel fee scaled by tonnage, with no foreign or diver differential.

Two, or three if you accept losing days to travel. Almost every Philippine destination is a domestic flight plus a road transfer plus a boat, and the last two legs are what eat the schedule: three to four hours by road from Cebu to Malapascua before a 30 minute crossing, two to three to Moalboal, a ferry and a drive to Bohol. The standing advice in dive forums has not changed in fifteen years, and it is to pick a shortlist rather than a tour. The exception is Panglao, where the airport is on the island.

December to May is the dry season nationally, and February to May is what divers most often name for visibility. June to August carries the typhoon risk, and the northeast monsoon can make the sea rough from around September into January without stopping the diving. The honest qualifier is that the country is too big for one answer: the wet and dry seasons differ in timing and intensity between the islands, and some destinations are governed by their own weather window rather than the national calendar.

Often, yes, and the certification card does not capture the difference. A lot of Philippine diving assumes you can gear up in a small boat, backroll on command, descend immediately because of current, hold trim in that current and be picked up from open water. Experienced divers say so consistently. They are equally consistent that it depends entirely on where you go: Bohol, Anilao and the Dumaguete coast were the destinations named as places where most sites do not run hard current.

Toward the shore-based, low-current destinations rather than the pelagic ones. Moalboal's baitball is entered on foot, needs no boat and no early start, and the house reefs beside it are easy. Panglao's south coast is shallow and gentle and puts an airport ten minutes from the dive strip. Anilao and Dauin are macro coasts where the demand is buoyancy rather than conditions, which is a skill you can practise. Save the dawn shoals, the deep walls and the liveaboard-only atoll for when small-boat work and current are routine.

No, and it is worth knowing before booking. The animals at Oslob are provisioned, meaning they are fed to keep them in place for visitors, and peer-reviewed work has documented behavioural harm from the practice. Divers who have been there describe it as a queue rather than an encounter. Wild whale shark encounters do happen elsewhere in the country, seasonally and without any guarantee, which is a different product from a scheduled one. Donsol in Sorsogon and Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte are the two established ones, and neither feeds its animals. Both are snorkel only: a national circular bans scuba at the whale shark interaction sites it lists, and all three places, Oslob included, are on that list.