The first season of Survivor Philippines premiered on September 15, 2008, and ended its run on December 14 of the same year, when John Carlo "JC" Tiuseco, defeating Robert Vincent "Rob" Sy in a vote of 7–2.

[1] Although the main format is the same, this season introduced several notable differences from the American version of Survivor: The castaways were initially divided into tribes by gender: Jarakay (Thai: จระเข้, lit.

After the shelter was finished, Gigit announced that he would relinquish his "mediator" role to Kiko, which the entire tribe accepted, although Jace thought of it as a ploy for votes.

Day 3: During the distribution of the tribal buffs, it was revealed that Emerson, Rob, Cris, Kiko, and JC were transferred to Naak, while Veronica, Nikki, Patani, Charisse, and Niña went to Jarakay.

During the Immunity Challenge, Naak led initially but strayed and later stopped because JC asked to be replaced by Emerson in carrying the spirit house, saying he was tired.

Night of Day 3: The Naak tribe returned to their camp from Tribal Council as they started to doubt Emerson's actions, causing distrust on him because of his claim that he had no idea how to definitely play the game.

During the fourth round of the Immunity Challenge, when all of Naak and all of Jarakay (save for Niña) faced off, Veronica's nose bled and John's arm was almost twisted.

Day 7: While the rest of Naak were having fun, Rob noticed Zita in her moment of solitude, confused after voting against Kaye at Tribal Council.

At Jarakay, Marlon started to plot his moves as a double agent by talking to Charisse and Niña about their vote on the upcoming Tribal Council.

Day 10: Several Jarakay members started to plan out further tactics for the next time they would visit Tribal Council, while others, such as Niña, felt remorse due to what happened the night before.

Appropriately, on Cris's birthday, Naak won the Reward Challenge, with Jarakay's loss caused mainly by Marlon's inability to dive into deeper water to retrieve a key.

Day 14: In the Immunity Challenge, even with Zita and Kaye falling down repeatedly, Naak easily won over Jarakay.

Day 15: In Jarakay, while preparing a new bamboo stalk to cook rice in, Marlon cut his finger with a machete, going to the water source to wash his wound.

Back in Naak, Kiko, Rob, and JC talked about their post-merge plans in the game and the current flaws in Jarakay's state of affairs.

Back at the Jarakay camp, Marlon once again played double agent when he handled different opinions to Veronica and Charisse on who to vote out; he was also considerate about the upcoming merge.

Day 19: Veronica, Marlon, and Charisse noted Jace's increasing laziness and sadness, knowing to them that he was even worse than Nikki.

At Tribal Council, the Chalam tribe discussed about what are the qualifications of a Sole Survivor and those of the jury members, as well as what happened in previous days.

While everyone else slept, Marlon posed to Rob on what politics would come into play when all Naak members were the only ones left in Chalam and other related tactics in the future.

As they were departing, Cris and Kaye wondered why they were not picked by JC while Marlon made a bold declaration that the four who went on the trip would compose the Final Four.

The secret location turned out to be a rustic fishing village in a nearby island and the four stayed with the family of a woman named Anoon for a little cultural exchange.

Four hours after the challenge began and despite not wanting to disappoint his father, Cris succumbed to the pain and eliminated himself, virtually giving Veronica immunity.

Upon return to camp, Cris and Kaye already were talking about Rob's recent lackadaisical attitude towards challenges and their readiness to vote off Kiko.

Back at camp, Rob related how he concealed the pieces of chicken under the rice before leaving for the resort, while Marlon told Cris about Zita being mad at JC because she was not chosen for the reward.

He decided to keep the steak to himself and give the other meals as respectively follows: the burger to Zita, the pasta and pizza to Kaye, the dried fish to JC, the sweet potato to Rob, and the tamarind to Marlon, leaving Charisse with the salt.

When Kaye related at how Rob was undeserving to stay further in the game, Marlon told her of more voting tactics, possibly bringing the momentum back to the Jarakay alliance.

Not wanting to torture himself and his tribemates any further, Cris intentionally threw the Black Pearl into the sea, leaving him vulnerable with two votes against him on the next Tribal Council, unless he would win Immunity.

Before the start of the Reward Challenge, the castaways reunited with their loved ones: Zita with her son-in-law, Cris with his mother, Rob with his brother, Charisse with her father, and JC with his girlfriend.

Day 35: Zita and Cris returned from their tour of Bangkok, finally giving a collective sigh of relief for JC, Rob, and Charisse.

The final Tribal Council, appropriately taking place during a stormy night, saw JC and Rob being barbed by several jury members.

Months later, in front of a live audience at the GMA Network Studios in Quezon City, not only did JC win the popularity vote by garnering 93% of it against Rob's 7%, he also ended up as the first Pinoy Sole Survivor, 7-2.