They had a similar offer pre-covid. When I did this trip on the same fare just before the world went into lockdown in March 2020, on the MNL transit everyone connecting to Australia has to go to a seperate part of the airport (basically a very small room), identify their luggage that has been checked through to MEL so they can open your bag and do a manual security check. If you have security wrapped your bag then dont expect it to be resealed with anything other than tape. The whole process was a crowded mess and would put me off doing it again. Same applies to flights to the US.
Its an Australian security thing apparantly due to failings identified in security procedures at MNL. Not sure if this has changed since though.