Hormuz attacks have hit 35 ships with Filipino crew aboard, four seafarers dead — DMW

Hormuz attacks have hit 35 ships with Filipino crew aboard, four seafarers dead — DMW
September 24, 2026 https://theglobalfilipinomagazine.com/hormuz-attacks-have-hit-35-ships-w...

An estimated 500 Filipino seafarers were aboard the 35 vessels attacked so far while crossing the Strait of Hormuz, and roughly 30% of them are still waiting to be brought home, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said. The other 70% have already returned to the Philippines.

Four did not survive. Cacdac said three Filipino crew members were killed in attacks in August, while a fourth seafarer who disappeared in February is now counted among the dead.

That number was revised within a day. According to BusinessMirror, Cacdac told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of the two-day Philippine Maritime Convention 2026 at the Manila Hotel on Tuesday that two seafarers who had gone missing in the strait were now listed as fatalities, putting the toll at five dead and one missing, based on information from DMW Director Augusto B. San Diego III. The same outlet reported that on Wednesday, Cacdac corrected himself and said only four had died in the Strait of Hormuz after their ships were attacked.

The count has grown steadily since early September. At the time, the department had tallied 31 vessels carrying 421 Filipino seafarers attacked in incidents involving the strait since February 28, with 406 unharmed, 10 injured but since recovered, three killed and one missing.

Two of the August deaths occurred aboard the Sidr, a crude oil tanker operated by Saudi national shipping company Bahri. Sixteen Filipinos were on board when the vessel was attacked late on August 31, and the strike set off a fire that the crew managed to contain. The two seafarers who died came from Cabuyao, Laguna, and Daanbantayan, Cebu, and their names were withheld, the Manila Bulletin reported. Saudi Arabia has blamed Iran for the attack, while Iran has not publicly accepted responsibility, according to Philstar.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. addressed the dangers at the convention on Wednesday, September 23, saying Filipino seafarers had been drawn into conflicts and security incidents “they did not create and in which they had no part.” He said the Department of Migrant Workers and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration had tightened safeguards for seafarers in war-risk areas and expanded the government’s ability to carry out emergency repatriation. Marcos also marked the second anniversary of Republic Act No. 12021, the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, renewing a pledge to protect their rights, welfare and safety.

The convention was organized by a tripartite group of government, employers and labor unions, with the DMW as lead convenor alongside the Maritime Industry Authority, the Associated Marine Officers’ and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines, and the Joint Manning Group.

Cacdac said the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of National Defense had recommended that the DMW discourage shipowners from sending Filipino sailors through the strait, and that an advisory had gone out to manning agents and shipowners “to avoid the Strait of Hormuz carrying Filipino seafarers on board.” He added that, as far as the department knows, no vessels with Filipino crew are still sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Filipino crew members can decline to make the passage at all. Cacdac has said the government is disallowing deployment whenever a seafarer invokes the right to refuse to sail, adding: “That right must be respected.”