Starting a company in the Philippines

[cmtuggl]

OK, so I may be asking a question way over my threshold, but I'd like to somehow start a company which has it's bulk of employees in the Philippines. Of course, I'd like to do this with the best benefit for me (as far as tax/ownership benefits). I think there may be restrictions there about foreign individuals being direct owners (I live in the US), so is there a way to own a company here that owns a company there?

I've googled this a bit and haven't seen any topic that addresses this. Please don't thread dump - it's my first post, so be nice