That's the rub, though, isn't it? "When used properly". PHP doesn't at all encourage you to use it properly. It doesn't define what "properly" is. The original article detailing PHP's fractally-bad design gave an impressive list of PHP's design flaws and all of the broken things it can do to you. If you know these things and know how to avoid them, you're golden. But who (especially new programmers) can be expected to know all those things?
I also think C++ is a pretty bad language, but you can do some very impressive and clean -- and most importantly, maintainable -- things with it if you use it properly. Unfortunately there are lots of definitions that people have come up with that detail the "proper" subsets of C++ that are safe to use, with disagreement on a bunch of things. (And for the love of $DEITY, please don't lump C++ in with C, which is really a beautiful, amazing language.)
I also think C++ is a pretty bad language, but you can do some very impressive and clean -- and most importantly, maintainable -- things with it if you use it properly. Unfortunately there are lots of definitions that people have come up with that detail the "proper" subsets of C++ that are safe to use, with disagreement on a bunch of things. (And for the love of $DEITY, please don't lump C++ in with C, which is really a beautiful, amazing language.)