Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,100 islands in Southeast Asia, a founding member of ASEAN, and one of the most labour-exporting nations on earth. Roughly 500,000 Filipinos work at sea at any given time, comprising around 25% of the global maritime workforce, while 10 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) worldwide send remittances equivalent to 9% of GDP. Around 2 million Filipinos are based in Gulf States alone. Beyond maritime labour, the Philippines is also one of the world's largest outsourcing hubs: its IT-BPM (business process outsourcing) sector employs close to 2 million people and earns roughly $40 billion a year serving North American and European clients.

The Iran-Hormuz crisis has struck the Philippines at two points simultaneously. The International Maritime Organisation reported 20,000 seafarers stranded in the Persian Gulf since hostilities began, Filipinos comprising the largest national contingent blocked at the Strait of Hormuz . Human Rights Watch documented at least 11 civilian deaths across Gulf States from Iranian strikes, with migrant workers, many Filipino, the majority of victims . Manila navigated this exposure with unusual diplomatic independence: the Philippines became the first US ally to cut a bilateral deal with Tehran, securing toll-free Hormuz passage on 2 April 2026 via a call between Foreign Minister Lazaro and Abbas Araghchi . That manoeuvre was later complicated when Trump ordered the US Navy to interdict vessels that had paid Iran a Hormuz toll, naming the Philippines among targeted flag states. By 1 June 2026, the Philippines had received its first Iranian crude cargo since the blockade began, confirming a breach in the closure and establishing Manila as an East Asian entry point for Iranian oil .

The Philippines has no direct military role in either the Iran conflict or the Russia-Ukraine war, yet its diaspora absorbs disproportionate economic cost from both. Unlike India, which negotiated individual transit passes for stranded vessels, Manila lacks the bilateral leverage to extract standing guarantees from Tehran. A protracted Gulf crisis translates directly into lost remittances and workers with no SAFE exit. South China Sea tensions with China, including repeated confrontations at Second Thomas Shoal, form a parallel strategic pressure that the Hormuz crisis has temporarily displaced from headlines but has not resolved. The country's outsourcing sector is now touching the AI-jobs story too: Accenture, which is absorbing 3,500 of the roles cut from British American Tobacco's June 2026 restructuring, is itself one of the Philippines' largest private employers, running delivery centres across Manila and Cebu.