MANILA, Philippines – You’re walking home from work when you see your significant other getting cozy with another woman at an upscale dining establishment. Do you make a scene at the restaurant, throw a glass of water in his face, and call it quits on the spot, or talk it out with your cheating partner in hopes that you can still fix things between you two?

This is a moral dilemma a good number of Filipinos have found themselves in. According to a national Social Weather Survey conducted from December 24 to 30, 2025, among 1,200 adults, 27% of Filipinos have witnessed and experienced being cheated on.

But for these people, betrayal manifested in different forms.

Types of cheating

It isn’t just about catching the love of your life with another man or woman. Filipinos who said they’ve experienced this kind of heartbreak in their romantic relationships identified seven different types of cheating — some of which might even surprise you.

The most common is, of course, physical cheating, where your partner engages in sexual acts with someone other than you.

With this comes emotional cheating. Here, nothing sexual or physical happens, but the cheater gets intimate with someone else on an emotional level as they pour their heart out to another person and experience “kilig” (romantic excitement) from these interactions.

Cyber cheating encapsulates both physical and emotional cheating. The only difference is that these acts of infidelity happen online. Think video calls or secret chats that sometimes warrant having to converse on an unconventional platform like a shopping app to avoid getting caught.

But if you’ve ever felt that your partner has begun to spend less and less time with you because they’re too busy playing video games, chances are, you’re experiencing object cheating.

There’s also financial cheating, where your partner makes secret purchases, hides their debts from you, or is just outright dishonest about their money.

You’ve likely heard of micro-cheating before but just thought of it as another buzzword. But here, your partner commits small, questionable acts that don’t necessarily fall under physical or emotional cheating, but come close to scratching the surface. Common examples of micro-cheating include your partner keeping their dating profile up even when you’ve already started dating, telling a stranger at a bar that they’re single, or even entertaining another person who is clearly attracted to them.

Of course, for the cheaters who engage in multiple types at the same time, what they’re doing is now considered combined cheating.

Is cheating forgivable?

But the real question is: will you forgive and forget? For 43% of Filipinos, the answer is yes.

This demographic believes that even though they’ve been cheated on, they can still find it in their hearts to trust their significant others again.

Not all are willing to put the past behind them, though. About 36% of Filipinos say that once their partner has betrayed them by cheating, there’s no more chance at restoring the trust they once had.

For 19% of Filipinos, however, the decision isn’t as clear to them. Rather than a definitive yes or no when it comes to their willingness to restore a trust that was once broken, the answer is… “I’m not sure.” Perhaps they’ll truly only know once it already happens.

Of the 1,200 adults surveyed, 13% are from Metro Manila, 45% are from other Luzon areas outside Metro Manila, 23% from Mindanao, and 19% from the Visayas. Respondents were an equal mix of males and females.

About 33% of the pool of respondents are aged 55 years old and older, 20% are aged 35 to 44, 20% aged 25 to 34, while 11% are 18 to 24 years old. – Rappler.com