TAIPEI – Filipino economist Jennifer Umlas is thrilled to soon be going on a holiday to Taiwan, home of her teenage TV obsession – Taiwanese idol drama Meteor Garden (2001).
The 37-year-old will be heading to the island for the first time in December, and she plans to visit various locations that were featured in the show, such as New Taipei City’s Tamsui district.
“I’ve been curious about visiting Taiwan for some time, and now that I see so many travel videos of it all over social media, I feel even more motivated to go,” she told The Straits Times in a video call. “Taiwan’s becoming a popular travel destination for Filipinos.”
In 2024, Filipinos became the No. 1 source of South-east Asian tourists to Taiwan for the first time, overtaking those from Malaysia and Singapore. Some 476,700 Filipino travellers arrived on the island that year, more than triple the 136,998 tourists recorded 10 years earlier.
Besides aggressive tourism campaigns starring Filipino influencers, Taiwan’s yearly extension of a visa-free entry programme for Philippine passport holders – first launched in 2017 – contributed to the surge in numbers.
In July 2025, Manila reciprocated for visitors from Taiwan, allowing Taiwanese tourists to enter the country for 14 days visa-free.
Tourism is just one of several indicators of the expanding unofficial ties between the two economies, as exchanges in other areas such as trade and education have also grown. This is on top of the presence of close to 200,000 Filipinos working on the island, and the 600 Taiwanese companies operating in the Philippines.
“As Taiwan and the Philippines deepen their unofficial ties through trade, finance, and people-to-people exchanges, both are increasingly bound by shared interests in economic cooperation and regional stability,” said Dr Jing Bo-jiun, a Taiwan studies expert at the University of Oxford.
Behind the scenes, Manila has also been
quietly working to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan,
even as the Philippines officially adheres to the “one China” policy, which does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and opposes the self-governing island having official interactions with other countries.
The Philippines, whether it admits it or not, has a front-line role in a Taiwan contingency, analysts say. This is because any potential armed invasion of the island may spill over to the northern part of the Philippines, which is part of the so-called first island chain used by the US to contain China’s maritime expansion.
“To a certain degree, Taiwan and the Philippines face the common danger of a more assertive China, so cooperating more makes sense,” Professor Renato Cruz De Castro, a Philippine foreign policy expert, told ST.
Vibrant Filipino migrant enclaves can be found in places such as “Little Manila” in Taipei’s Zhongshan District.
ST PHOTO: YIP WAI YEE
In particular, enhancing people-to-people engagements is a “very pragmatic move”, said the distinguished professor from De La Salle University in Manila.
“Such connections are very important in terms of building trust and confidence, because there’s nothing abstract about human relations,” he added.
Prof De Castro knows all about making connections as a visiting scholar at Taipei’s National Chengchi University.
“We have built trust through commonalities such as a respect for free press and liberal democracy. The next time my Taiwanese students interact with Filipinos, they will know that we share common interests, and it’s the same for Filipino students in Taiwan,” he said.
In 2024, Taiwan welcomed around 4,450 Filipino university students – more than double the 1,960 students five years earlier, according to official statistics.
Many arrived on generous scholarships offered by the Taipei government, studying subjects such as science, mathematics and the island’s particular strength, semiconductor technology.
In 2024, Filipinos became the No. 1 source of South-east Asian tourists to Taiwan for the first time, overtaking those from Malaysia and Singapore.
ST PHOTO: YIP WAI YEE
As for trade, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr sent a diplomatic signal in April when he relaxed a 38-year-old restriction on government officials’ contact with their Taiwanese counterparts in economic affairs. That paved the way for Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung to make a rare visit to Manila in late August as head of a trade delegation over objections from China. It marked only the second-known visit to the Philippines by a Taiwanese foreign minister since Mr Chiang Hsiao-yen took a “vacation” in the country in 1997 as foreign minister.
“Lin was in Manila to talk about trade and investment – he was not wearing the hat of a diplomat,” said Prof De Castro. “Amid global economic uncertainties, increasing trade is good for both sides.”
In 2024, bilateral trade between Taiwan and the Philippines amounted to US$6.71 billion (S$8.6 billion), with the island becoming the Philippines’ eighth-largest export market and 10th-largest source of imports.
Visitors at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Square in Taipei, in June, with statues from Netflix series Squid Game on display.
PHOTO: REUTERS
On the other hand, the Philippines is Taiwan’s 17th-largest trading partner, behind its Asean neighbours such as Singapore (sixth), Malaysia (seventh), Vietnam (eighth), Thailand (11th) and Indonesia (14th).
While this is a “relatively modest” ranking, said the University of Oxford’s Dr Jing in a July report for The National Bureau of Asian Research, he is convinced it will change in the years to come.
“Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs identifies new opportunities stemming from the Philippines’ sustained economic growth and young demographic profile,” he wrote.
Of course, one cannot talk of the critical ties between the two sides without mentioning the thousands of Filipino workers living in Taiwan, who are typically employed in factories or caring for the elderly.
Because of their significant population on the island, Manila has long framed any possible involvement in a potential Taiwan conflict mainly as a humanitarian concern.
Filipino migrant workers began arriving in Taiwan in significant numbers in the 1990s as a response to labour shortages, and their presence has led to vibrant migrant enclaves in places such as Taoyuan City’s Zhongli District, and “Little Manila” in the capital’s Zhongshan District.
At the Wow Litson and Manok Inasal restaurant in Taipei, for instance, members of the Filipino community are drawn to the mouth-watering smell of grilled chicken and pork. Some children are spotted enjoying halo-halo, the colourful Philippine crushed ice dessert layered with beans, sweetened fruit, and condensed milk.
Ms Grace Saparco, 48, who has been running the restaurant since 2011, said she dreams of the day when Philippine food becomes the “new go-to” foreign cuisine in Taiwan.
“I hope our food can become as famous here as Thai food or Vietnamese food,” she told ST, adding that she will “keep working hard” to promote her food to the Taiwanese. Ask her if she has any concerns about the possibility of a conflict in the region, however, and the mother of two dismisses it.
“When I go back to the Philippines, I’ll see some news reporters make a big deal of a possible war. But while living here, I don’t feel it at all – life just carries on normally,” she said. “Of course, all of us just want to have peace.”
