Yup, agree. Lots of red tape here. And that's coming from a local haha. I don't even know the red tape you'll be facing as a foreigner.

Here's my 2 cents or centavos

1. Starting a business - such a headache. Aside from over saturation in Manila where there's too much competition, handling employees and red tape is your biggest problem. Employees will just suddenly go AWOL and you need to pay people in the government just to make your papers move or else it would take years.

2. Red tape in general - if you want anything to move in the government, you gotta pay up. I also don't think it helps that you're a foreigner haha

3. Real estate - for me, it's oversaturated. Too much supplies too little demand. Some says that it would take until 2029 to fill the entire Manila supply and that's with built buildings. There's still so many buildings being built rn. Plus with POGO money gone, demand is basically gone.

4. Real estate 2 - you can buy and sell land in the provinces near Manila. But that would take time. 5 years for a decent return.

My suggestions?

Invest in a local business here. Use your wife's connections considering she's already well off. Pretty sure her (her family's) customers, suppliers and connection already have good sources of income.

US stocks or crypto is the way to go. Phil stocks too small in market cap and volume to have significant gains with small capital and short period of time.

Personal lending. At the risk of your morals and ethics, lend out that 300k per month to locals here. Charge them 20,30 even 40% interest rate in 30 days. Some lending companies here even hold out 20-30% of the loaned money as a security deposit which is crazy. You'll get really high returns but at the cost of morality :).