There hasn't been an ILS in Cebu for a number of years, VOR and RNAV (GNSS) available for 04 and 22 with minimums a couple of hundred feet higher than a precision approach.
Two approaches, 13 minutes apart, followed by 40 minutes holding and then the third and last approach.
If that was the case, it sounds like he painted himself into a corner and had to get it on the ground. Manila is just over an hour away, they should have been able to divert after the first approach, after a second attempt they might have been a bit tight especially if damage had occurred, after 40 minutes subsequent holding it was probably a fuel emergency meaning they had to land