Month of Overseas Filipino – December 1, 2026

History of Month of Overseas Filipino

Leaving your homeland, the place where you grew up and where everything and everyone you know lives, can be difficult. But many people do it for the opportunity that it provides to support a different life for their children.

An overseas Filipino is any person of full or partial Filipino origin — that is, people who trace their ancestry back to the Philippines but reside outside the country.

Since the Immigration Act of the United States changed in 1965, the number of people in the U.S. of Filipino ancestry has grown exponentially and in 2007, there were around 12 million Filipinos living overseas.

In 2013, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimated that about 10.2 million people of Filipino descent lived or worked abroad. This number makes up around 11% of the Philippines’ population. It’s one of the largest diaspora populations, spanning more than 100 countries.

In June 1988, the then president of the Philippines, Maria Corazon “Cory” Sumulong Cojuangco Aquino signed Proclamation No. 276 declaring December 1988 and the same month, every year after that as the Month of Overseas Filipinos. It gives recognition to the Filipinos living overseas who have contributed to the restoration of Philippine democracy and the development of the country through their hard work, taxes, and remittances.

In 2007, then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Administrative Order No. 202 creating the Inter-Agency Committee. This was done to celebrate the Month of Overseas Filipinos with the Philippine Migrants Rights Watch (P.M.R.W., an umbrella organization of migrant civil society organizations) as Chair and the C.F.O. as Co-Chair.