The Republic of the Philippines has a network of diplomatic missions in major cities around the world, under the purview of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), to forward the country's interests in the areas that they serve, as well as to serve the ever-growing numbers of Overseas Filipinos and Overseas Filipino Workers.
Although the Philippine diplomatic mission network is wide, there are embassies that are accredited to other nations without Philippine diplomatic posts. The network as of November 2024 consists of 67 embassies, 28 consulates-general, 4 permanent missions to international organizations, and the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei, and its 2 extension offices.
Excluded from this listing are honorary consulates, branches of the Sentro Rizal, overseas offices of the Department of Tourism and the Department of Migrant Workers, and trade missions (with the exception of MECO, which serves as the country's de facto embassy to Taiwan).
Although attempts at initial diplomatic relations were made during the Philippine Revolution and the time of the First Philippine Republic, most nations have established diplomatic relations with the Philippines only in the years after the country achieved independence from the United States in 1946.
The first documented instance of a Philippine diplomatic mission being established abroad was that of the embassy in Tokyo, which was opened by the Second Philippine Republic, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan, on March 24, 1944, with Jorge B. Vargas as its first ambassador.[1] However, the mission was summarily closed with Japan's defeat in World War II, and as it was never recognized by the pre-war Commonwealth of the Philippines,[2] the oldest continually-operating Philippine diplomatic mission is that of the embassy in Washington, D.C., replacing the office of the Resident Commissioner of the Philippines after the country achieved independence from the United States on July 4, 1946,[2] and led by Joaquín Miguel Elizalde as its first ambassador.[3] This was followed shortly thereafter with the establishment of the permanent mission to the United Nations.[3]
A number of missions were opened in the first years after independence. In his 1947 State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Manuel Roxas announced that missions in a number of other cities were also opened aside from the embassy in Washington, D.C.;[4] these included the first consulates general in New York City, San Francisco, and Honolulu, as well as consulates in Xiamen and Hong Kong.[5] Additional missions were opened the following year, including the first missions in Europe (in London, Madrid and Rome) and Latin America (in Buenos Aires).[6] By 1952, the Philippine foreign service had grown to encompass missions in 11 countries,[7] and by 1965 grew further to missions in 36 countries worldwide.[8]
The Philippines' diplomatic presence grew significantly during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, spurred in part by the normalization of relations with the Eastern Bloc in the early 1970s.[9] Philippine diplomatic missions were present in 43 countries by 1978,[10] with additional missions opening the following year, particularly in the Middle East.[11] By 1981, there were 63 countries worldwide hosting Philippine diplomatic missions.[12] Several missions, however, would be closed at the tail end of the Marcos presidency and in the years thereafter as part of a series of cost reduction programs.
Another expansion of the country's diplomatic presence took place during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, with 67 countries hosting Philippine diplomatic missions by the end of her presidency. This, however, was not without controversy: in 2010 Senator Franklin Drilon questioned the need for embassies in countries with small Filipino communities, calling for a review of the Philippines' diplomatic presence worldwide.[13] Arroyo's successor, Benigno Aquino III, then announced two years later the closure of ten posts (seven embassies and three consulates general): Caracas, Venezuela; Koror, Palau; Dublin, Ireland; Stockholm, Sweden; Bucharest, Romania; Havana, Cuba; Helsinki, Finland; Barcelona, Spain; Frankfurt, Germany and Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.[14] These closures have since been largely reversed under Aquino's successors, Rodrigo Duterte and Bongbong Marcos, with the 2019 reopening of the consulate general in Frankfurt,[15] the 2020 reopening of the consulate general in Barcelona,[16] and shortly thereafter the reopening of the embassy in Sweden.[17] In 2024, the embassies in Finland, Ireland and Romania reopened after funding to reopen them was approved by Congress, alongside the future reopening of the embassy in Cuba.[18] Even missions closed years earlier were reopened, such as the 2018 reopening of the consulate general in Houston 25 years after it was last closed.[19]
Aquino's successors have generally returned to an expansion of the Philippines' diplomatic presence abroad, including the opening of new missions where they did not exist previously. Under Duterte, the Philippines opened its embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 14, 2019, the first new embassy to open since 2012,[20] while the first new consulate to open since 2012 opened in Nagoya, Japan on December 1, 2020.[21] Under Bongbong Marcos, the first new mission to open during his presidency is the embassy in Bogotá, Colombia in 2024.[22] Other missions likely to be opened include new embassies in Ethiopia,[23] Kazakhstan,[23] Panama,[24] and Ukraine,[25] as well as the reopening of embassies in Palau and Peru.[23][26]
↑Bhutan is listed only under the consular jurisdiction of the Philippine Embassy in New Delhi. As of 2023, the two countries have yet to establish formal diplomatic relations.
↑The Philippine Embassy to the Holy See is located outside Vatican territory in Rome.
↑The embassy closed down on 29 April 1975, in the midst of the Fall of Saigon, which marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam.
↑The Philippine embassy to West Germany was hosted in Bonn. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, the embassy for the unified Germany was still maintained in Bonn. The embassy moved to Berlin in 1999, though the chancery in Bonn housed an extension office which remained operational until 2008. More information is available on the article on the current Philippine embassy in Berlin
↑"State of the Nation Address of President Roxas, January 27, 1947". Official Gazette. 27 January 1947. Retrieved 24 October 2021. Consistent with our new status as a Republic, we have organized a Foreign Affairs Department and a Foreign Service, and established an embassy at Washington and consular offices in a number of places abroad.
↑"Official Week in Review: September 21 – September 27, 1973". Official Gazette. October 1973. Retrieved 12 November 2021. THE PHILIPPINES and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) established formal diplomatic relations it was announced by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The Philippine-East German agreement is the first of four contemplated agreements with socialist countries of Eastern Europe which the President had specifically instructed Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo to negotiate.
↑Okada, Kaoru (5 December 2020). "在名古屋フィリピン総領事館が１日開設され、一部業務を開始" [The Philippine Consulate General in Nagoya opened on the 1st and started some operations]. Manila Shimbun (in 日本語). Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Consulate General in Chicago, United States of America. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". Consulate General of the Philippines - Chicago. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Consulate General in Agana, United States of America. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". Philippine Consulate General in Agana, Guam. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu, Hawaii. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Consulate General in Houston, Texas. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"VIETNAM". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Vienna, Austria. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"AUSTRIA". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Brussels, Belgium. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"BELGIUM". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Philippine Embassy in Prague, Czech - Velvyslanectví Filipín v České republice (in English and čeština). Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Paris, France. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"FRANCE". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑ 146.0146.1"GERMANY". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Philippine Embassy in Berlin. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Consulate General in Frankfurt, Germany. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". Consulate General of the Philippines; Frankfurt. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"GREECE". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Athens, Greece. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Vatican". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"HUNGARY". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Budapest, Hungary. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Diplomatic List"(PDF). Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Ireland. October 2024. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
↑ 156.0156.1"ITALY". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Embassy in Rome, Italy. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of Philippine Consulate General in Milan, Italy. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"NETHERLANDS". Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑"Home". The Official Website of the Philippine Mission to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
↑ 190.0190.1190.2190.3Slomanson, William R. (2011). "Fundamental Perspectives on International Law; Sixth Edition". epdf.pub. p. 87. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 30 April 2022. In 1993, the Philippines announced that it would close its consulates in a number of US cities. It also closed its embassies in Cuba, Jordan, Micronesia, Morocco, Peru, Poland, Romania, Senegal, and Sri Lanka.
1 The Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei is the representative office of the Philippines in Taiwan, which functions as an informal diplomatic mission.
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