^It depends on your purpose for investing, sis. Also on what kind of investor you are.
If your goal is to maximize the growth potential of your money, go with pure investment. No extra charges for insurance, agent's commission, and etc. You also have full control on where your money will be invested, like, say, Universal Robina (61.17% YTD), BDO (41.94% YTD), and DMCI (57.96% YTD), which all beat the year-to-date returns of ALL types of managed funds here in the Philippines.
If your goal is to protect your money from estate tax, open a VUL. Your money's growth will be at a turtle's pace in comparison, but again, your purpose here is to legally avoid paying death taxes. For me, this is done by people who are ill, who are 65 years old and older, or very rich that they need more diversified investments. This is NOT done by the young who, with their time, good health, and limited monetary resources, can (and should!) very much afford to be in aggressive investments.
But here comes in the second part of my statement: it also depends on what kind of investor you are. If you can manage your own money, always, always go for pure investment. If you can't, then the VUL, with its 2-1, no-brainer packaging, is more suited to you. (But I really believe that people who say that they can't manage their money should really learn how to.)
If you're concerned about your investments being frozen and taxed when you die, just get pure insurance. I also really, really think that the death taxation should be revised, but this is digressing from the topic.