ABSTRACT
The Middle East offers significant political, developmental, and investment potentials for the Filipino nation, but the Philippine government tends to focus primarily on a limited range of concerns vis-à-vis the region: the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the security of the energy supply, and the role of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in the peace process in Mindanao. This chapter argues that the Philippines, somewhat constrained by the dilemma of small powers that hinder the Philippines from exercising an independent foreign policy, has been overlooking its interests in the Middle East region since the 1970s. The factors contributing to this oversight are cultural hegemony/orientalism, biased media reporting, US political and cultural hegemony over the Philippines, and the lack of Middle East studies programs in the Philippines, which manifests itself in the lack of Filipino scholarly expertise on the region.
This then translates into the failure of the country to adequately produce and effectively implement policies that will allow the Philippines to maximize the politico-economic and cultural benefits from the Middle East.
