How long can I stay in the Philippines?

Here is my receipt and clearance certificate from last month...
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His first extension will be for 29 days to give him a total of 59 days stay. He can then extend by 1, 2 or 6 month increments on or before his 59th day and will be charged an additional 3,000 or so for a Tourist ACR card.

I am hoping to make my tenth trip to phils and could do with some advice about the best way to deal with the visa situation, in the past 30 days has always been enough but this time i want to arrive at Cebu April 9th and go back to the UK for a week or so on august 21st then return back to phils if everything works out ok.
Is it best to extend while in phils or before i go?Also when entering phils immigration will see the return date in August is outside the 30 day free visa so will this be an issue if im extending while in Cebu?

If you know the right people...

while you do need an onward ticket out of the Philippines just like tourists do in every other country, the onward ticket does not have to be within the 30 day visa-exempt period.

getting an extension in Cebu is relatively straightforward but the BoI office in J-Mall, Mandaue is rather crowded because for some reason, guys feel obliged to bring their girlfriends along even though they in nearly all cases have no business being there. So it's standing room only. It is a bit time-consuming too there and likely to take at least an hour to process.

far better is the satellite BoI office at Gaisano Island Mall in Lapu-Lapu. Hardly anybody ever goes there, and you'll be in and out in about 10 minutes.

Thanks for taking the time to reply you told me exactly what i wanted to hear.Happy days.

I did HK a few years ago - had a meal, walked around the airport and a few hours later caught the plane back.

Thanks for your help im in Cebu now and i got my first visa extension from the mall in lapu lapu and as Steller said it took 10 mins the place was empty.
I need to get my aci card now and i dont know what i will be required to take with me?id pics photo copies of my passport pages lots of conflicting suggestions has anyone uptodate information about this?

I applied for mine back in February and it is still not available. You will need your passport and photocopies, two if I recall correctly, of the visa page and the bio page. Total cost including the obligatory visa extension and express fee, was in the order of P7k.