MANILA — The Philippines has finalized a five-year labor migration program with the International Labour Organization (ILO) designed to strengthen technical assistance and support for governments, social partners, and civil society, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the agency said it completed the TRIANGLE Partnerships 2026-2027 Workplan with the ILO and various institutional partners on Oct. 5 during a meeting of the Philippine National Programme Advisory Committee. The workplan covers the opening years of the program's five-year window, giving the country's participation a defined starting point.

The ILO TRIANGLE Partnerships are a regional program funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The initiative seeks to enhance labor migration's contribution to inclusive growth and development across the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The program covers April 2026 to March 2031 and provides policies, tools, and services throughout the period. In ILO usage, "social partners" refers to organizations of employers and workers — the same constituencies the organization convenes alongside governments.

“This ILO Triangle partnership is a strong entry point for transforming opportunities into tangible programs and policies that benefit Filipino migrant workers and their families,” DMW Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac said.

The DMW, created in 2021 through Republic Act No. 11641, serves as the Philippine government's lead agency for overseas employment, with a mandate to protect the rights and promote the welfare of Filipino workers abroad.

The Philippines is one of the world's largest countries of origin for overseas workers, with millions of its nationals employed in other countries. Remittances sent home by overseas Filipinos have long been a mainstay of the domestic economy, consistently placing the country among the world's leading remittance recipients and supporting household consumption and national output. That standing is what gives regional cooperation frameworks such as TRIANGLE direct relevance to Manila: as an ASEAN-wide effort on labor migration governance, the program operates in the same policy space where the country's overseas employment agenda is set.

The ILO, a specialized agency of the United Nations founded in 1919, brings together governments, employers, and workers to set international labor standards and promote decent work worldwide. Its TRIANGLE Partnerships program supports Southeast Asian governments in managing labor migration in ways that contribute to inclusive growth and development. With the workplan completed, attention now turns to the program's April 2026 to March 2031 window, throughout which policies, tools, and services are to be provided to the governments, social partners, and civil society groups the initiative covers. — Francessca S. Abalos