AMID concern over expectations of lower cash remittance levels from conflict-stricken Middle East countries, Filipinos working in these countries and the seafarers sent more money back home, apparently fearing that prices of goods will continue to escalate in their home country.
Zooming in on the Middle East region, an analyst explained to the BusinessMirror why Filipinos working in the conflict-stricken region sent more money back home ‘amid the dangers to their lives that the bombings bring.’
‘Sensing that the Middle East conflict may not be a quick one, it may be likely that OFWs in the Gulf countries have sent some of their saved incomes to loved ones on top of their usual remittances,’ Jeremaiah Opiniano, executive director of the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI) and professor at the University of Santo Tomas, told the BusinessMirror.
Opiniano said this effort may be a ‘response’ to rising inflation rates in the Philippines, even if inflation rates rose in the Middle East countries as well.
John Paolo R. Rivera, Senior Research Fellow at state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), shared the same view as Opiniano, saying: ‘OFWs may be sending more money home to help families cope with rising prices and economic uncertainty in the Philippines.’
Further, Rivera pointed out that ‘historically, OFWs tend to increase support for their families during crises rather than reduce it.’
Based on the data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on overseas Filipino cash remittances by country source, the money sent home by Filipinos based in Middle East countries climbed by 19.94 percent to $565.91 million in March 2026, from the $471.84 million recorded in February.
The Middle East conflict broke on February 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran, which retaliated with missile and drone attacks on strategic energy hubs that sent global oil prices soaring.
Of the 12 host countries in the Middle East that cater to Filipino migrant workers, only cash remittances from Jordan and Israel declined in March.
The money sent home by Filipinos working in Jordan fell to $5.47 million, down 16.39 percent from $6.54 million in the previous month, while remittances from Israel plunged to nearly $12 million from the $12.47 million in February 2026.
Meanwhile, host countries which saw positive growth rates in remittances in March were: Iraq, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Oman, Libya, Lebanon, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Remittances from Iraq jumped to $9,000 in March 2026, from the $4,000 in the previous month.
Top senders from Mideast
BSP data showed the Philippines’s top sources of cash remittances in the Middle East posted the fastest growth rates in the February to March 2026 period.
From Saudi Arabia, the top source of remittances of the Philippines in the Middle East, money sent home by Filipino workers increased by 28.37 percent, as they sent $194.79 million to their families back home, compared to the $151.75 million in February 2026.
The money sent home by UAE-based Filipino workers rose to $164.23 million in March, up 27.88 percent from the $128.42 million in the previous month.
Given these developments, Opiniano called the Filipino overseas worker in the Middle East ‘heroic.’
‘Amid the dangers to their lives that the bombings bring, they still try to send more money back home. Noticing the trends of the crisis to individual countries last March, it seems to be too early to tell when the crisis will affect the real economies of these individual Middle East countries,’ he told this newspaper.
He added: ‘For now, if some Gulf countries shield themselves from drone and missile attacks through modern missile interception artillery, Filipino workers use their incomes-their remittances-to continually shield themselves from the conflict’s attacks on their incomes.’
In this instance, Opiniano stressed: ‘Truly, foreign remittances are countercyclical. They rise even if the origin country faces economic downturns and challenges. The Filipino worker is heroic truly.’
Opiniano also noted that in the absence of data on how many Filipino workers were displaced from their work given the bombings, ‘There is a sense that these compatriots of ours were not displaced from their jobs on a large scale.’
He said the nearly 11,000 OFWs repatriated by DMW ‘unfortunately lost their jobs or other income-earning opportunities, but the number gets dwarfed by over 2 million Filipinos still working in these Gulf countries.’
Rivera pointed out that many Gulf economies remain operational despite geopolitical tensions, particularly sectors where Filipino workers are concentrated, such as healthcare, engineering, logistics, and household services.
‘This highlights the resilience of remittance flows, especially during periods of uncertainty,’ Rivera also told this newspaper.
Beyond quick response, plan for crises
Looking ahead, Opiniano said ‘The Philippine macroeconomy must go beyond heaving sighs of relief when host countries face economic and civil disruptions that affect our workers, and these may negatively affect remittance sending.’
‘Surely, the Department of Migrant Workers had responded with repatriation and reintegration measures, and even cash aid to those still in the Middle East. The government already knows what to do during these situations. However, external crises happened and this decade alone has a lot of these global, regional and country-level crises,’ added Opiniano.
He also emphasized that Filipinos must learn from the lessons that the Covid-19 pandemic wrought on economic lives, including those with overseas remittances.
‘The entrepreneurial and investment programs for overseas Filipinos and their families may need more help from as many stakeholders nationwide-especially the private sector and from rural financial institutions,’ added Opiniano.
Remittance-receiving families, meanwhile, had better improve their capacities to bolster their savings, save for the rainy day, enroll in financial products that protect their future (insurance, pension) and exercise prudence in using their family incomes that foreign remittances bolstered.