No, it isn't how it's always done...

Alot of foreigners are married to filipino citizens, thus they don't have to lease/rent the land. The land is owned by the filipino spouse and the house can actually be owned by both. If you choose to not marry, I guess you could feasibly have a "partner for life" and the land be in their name, but if you decided to part ways it could get sticky and you could possibly end up having to pay rent to your former sweetie, I honestly don't know how all that would work out. I guess it gets sticky even for married couples where one is foreigner and the other is filipino and they split up. Maybe there are some others on here with insight into all of this.

Good Luck to you!!:D