The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) is urging the inclusion of permanent emigrant data in the national migration database to strengthen government policymaking and deepen engagement with the Filipino diaspora.

During a meeting of the Technical Working Group on Methodology for Estimating the Stock of Overseas Filipinos (TWG-MESOF) on Wednesday, CFO officials stressed that gaps in migration data limit the government’s ability to effectively serve Filipinos abroad. The meeting gathered migrant-serving agencies to align and improve the country’s migration statistics system.

The CFO noted that current estimation methods rely heavily on host-country reports submitted through Foreign Service Posts, often excluding Filipino emigrants and their descendants who have permanently settled overseas. According to the agency, these groups remain vital stakeholders in the Philippines’ economic, social, and cultural life and should be reflected in official data.

To fulfill its mandate of promoting the welfare of Filipinos abroad and strengthening ties with overseas communities, the CFO emphasized the need for a more accurate and inclusive “stock estimate” of overseas Filipinos. Reliable data, the agency said, is essential to effective diaspora engagement, national development planning, and crisis response.

Members of the TWG-MESOF acknowledged that migration data is currently fragmented across agencies such as the CFO, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), and the Bureau of Immigration (BI), with varying definitions and data collection methods causing inconsistencies.

The working group agreed that improving migration statistics requires comprehensive mapping and assessment of existing datasets before a unified methodology can be established.

The TWG-MESOF will continue reviewing agency-specific data to address these gaps, with the goal of producing a national migration estimate that accurately reflects the full scope and diversity of the global Filipino community.