Originally Posted by
TravelDream
Yes, you need to call the agent to see how much you can get back/ if you can get anything back.
$500 is a pretty fantastic deal from the US to the Philippines as it's a long way. Any reason you don't want to go?
If you can't get a refund, you may as well go and get a low cost flight to KL/ Bangkok/ somewhere and explore a bit! That would be much better than wasting money of the flight ticket.
My guess is the current state of political and religious unrest? If I were the OP and I didn't want to visit the Philippines and couldn't get a refund, I would use Manila as a transit point and take a LCC to another country.