While the country does host a significant foreign-born community within its archipelago, the Philippines identifies itself as a country of origin, with approximately 10 million Filipinos Overseas who still call the Philippines home. It is for their protection, rights, and welfare, that the Philippine Government has emerged over the last 4 decades as a champion for global governance for the protection of migrants.

The Philippine legislature has been a partner in this effort, enacting laws that designed to offer protection to Filipino migrants at all stages of the migration cycle, facilitating interphase with government at pre-departure, on-site, return and reintegration. These stages in the cycle offer opportunities for effective communication, through institutionalized mechanisms, as well as through other channels, facilitated by technology and social media, among others.  It is the view of the Philippines that all channels combined are needed to be effective.    

 It is at those points of interphase that there exists an opportunity, an obligation even, for government to communicate effectively with migrants, through institutional mechanisms.   

Considering the large number of Overseas Filipinos, the Philippine government strongly enforces its mandate of protecting Filipino migrants and promoting their welfare through bilateral, regional and multilateral platforms, including informal processes such as the GFMD. 

The Philippines also ensures that there is an effective, timely and accurate communication between the government and Filipino migrants at all stages of migration, to guarantee their safety and protection. Multiple traditional and innovative communication channels are utilized to break communication barriers and reach out to overseas Filipinos (OFs) wherever they may be, and however they may choose to communicate.  The primary driver of their communications platform is the preference of their migrants.

The Philippines has found that Filipino migrants are most comfortable interacting through word of mouth from among their contemporaries in the community, through the internet, and by utilizing social media channels. There is a need to ensure that the information shared on these platforms are relevant and valid.  The effort to clear these platforms of false information is also key.  Multisectoral engagement with civil society and the migrant community organizations is key to stop the spread of false information.

For government transactions, however, migrants still trust government web-portals, physical presence of the government abroad, and face to face interactions.  This is an advantage, in terms of ensuring valid information.  However, there is a need to invest in the necessary infrastructure to facilitate those interactions at regular and reliable intervals.