10 OFW teleseryes you should watch again

Overseas Filipino workers are a mainstay in Philippine society, which is why OFW teleseryes have made the airwaves in the last 20 years. From kilig-filled romcoms to heavy dramas, here are 10 television shows about Pinoys who ventured out of their comfort zones and found love, challenges, and themselves.

While Crazy for You only ran for only 10 weeks, it is known as the first OFW teleserye. The series stars Toni Gonzaga as Janice, an OFW domestic worker in Barcelona, and Luis “Lucky” Manzano as Wacky, a Filipino studying in Spain with his ex-OFW father’s support. 

Looking to earn extra, Janice signs up to clean Wacky’s apartment while he enjoys life in Spain. To blow off steam, she assumes a rich girl persona and goes clubbing with her best friend Bessie. At one of these clubs, she crosses paths with Wacky, and the two gradually fall in love. While Wacky doesn’t know Janice is the very woman who has been cleaning his apartment, Janice struggles to come clean and tell her rich-boy boyfriend who she really is.

Set in South Korea, Only You is an OFW teleserye adaptation of a popular Korean drama with the same title. In the Filipino version, Angel Locsin plays Jillian, a Filipino culinary student learning to become a chef in South Korea. Accompanying her is her Pinoy best friend and suitor Johnathan (Ocampo). While pursuing the flavours of her host country, she runs into a moody young man named TJ (Milby). The three form a love triangle that spans years and countries. 

Another adaptation of a popular K-drama, Green Rose stars Jericho Rosales as Jerome, a regular guy who is head over heels for Angela (Curtis), the heiress of the billion-peso company he works for. Angela gives her heart to Jerome, despite her father’s protests and the wooing of her father’s protégé Edward (Cuenca).

Jilted, Edward frames Jerome for the death of Angela’s father, forcing Jerome to escape to South Korea—where he reinvents himself as a ruthless businessman.

Years later, Jerome assumes a new identity and returns to the Philippines as a balikbayan bent on revenge.

In this teleserye, Kim Chiu plays tomboyish Jade Dimaguiba, daughter of Zheny (Ai-Ai delas Alas), a former OFW, and Chen (Richard Yap), a man from Guangzhou. Zheny met Chen while she was working as a teacher in China; and despite her in-law’s disapproval, she married him. Their marriage bore a baby girl.

Disappointed to learn that his child is a girl, Chen chose to surrender Jade to the government so that he could be allowed to try for a son under China’s old one-child policy. However, Zheny refused. She returned to the Philippines with Jade while pregnant with a second child, a son. Sadly, Zheny’s baby boy Yuan dies in Manila.

Chen moves to Manila, unaware that his son has died and emotionally unavailable to his young daughter. Years pass and Jade grows into a Filipino Chinese girl from Binondo. Wanting to win her father’s love, she assumes Yuan’s identity and introduces herself to Chen as his long lost son.

This is Richard Yap’s first major acting role before becoming Sir Chief in Be Careful with My Heart. This is also the series that launched the popular KimXi love team of the 2010s.

As children of OFWs, couple Sarah (Magdayao) and Paul (Cuenca) know the hardships their parents faced from being apart. They try their hardest to avoid walking the same path, but life is hard. As hard as he fought to stay in the Philippines, Paul is forced to take on the same job that ruined his parents’ marriage and caused Sarah to grow up fatherless. 

Lonely and homesick, Paul seeks comfort in the arms of an old flame (Garcia), unaware that his legal wife Sarah has travelled to the Middle East to be with him.

With scenes shot in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Kung Ako’y Iiwan Mo deals with love, family, infidelity, and the challenges that come with having to raise a family while in separate parts of the world.

According to Manny Palo, one of the OFW teleserye’s directors, their team interviewed OFWs in Dubai and Doha to learn about “their lifestyle, working conditions and struggles on the personal level to make the basis of the story somehow true to life.” He said their goal was to make something OFWs could wholeheartedly relate to from the start and end of the OFW process.

After an injury prevents her sister from working as a seafarer, Maya (Sta. Maria) takes it upon herself to support her family by leaving her hometown and finding OFW work from an agency in Manila. Her hopes are shattered when she finds out the recruiter she had entrusted with her savings was actually a scammer.

Stranded but determined, she takes on odd jobs at the airport until she is hired as a nanny for the three lonely children of rich widower and airplane magnate Richard “Sir Chief” Lim (Yap). As the children grow to love her, Maya slowly peels away Sir Chief’s cold exterior and falls in love with the kind-hearted man he has always been.

Despite its afternoon time slot, BCWMH (as it was known to fans) was a crowd favourite. For two years, Maya and Sir Chief delighted fans with their love story, propelling Sta. Maria and Yap to household name status. The show concluded after 622 episodes, with the series ending on a high note with the highest ratings against its competitors. It also became a hit in Malaysia.

Known as OTWOL among fans, On the Wings of Love was Nadine Lustre and James Reid’s first teleserye following their hit movie Diary ng Panget (2014).

The teleserye tells the story of Leah, an aspiring OFW who enters the United States as a tourist to find work so she can help her family in the Philippines. To continue staying in America, she enters a marriage of convenience with Clark, a moody Fil-am whose goal is to provide a better life for his siblings in the motherland. The two slowly get to know each other and fall in love, all while dealing with the ups and downs of being Filipinos in America.

The groundbreaking, and occasionally controversial, show bagged several awards during its run, including Best TV Drama Program and Primetime Series of the Year. It was so successful that its final episode included a live concert at the Ynares Center in Antipolo, Rizal, where Reid and Lustre hard launched their relationship.

After airing in the Philippines, OTWOL also delighted viewers in Indonesia and Thailand.

While working as an OFW in the Middle East, Eldon (Alves) commits a crime and is sentenced to death. To spare his life, the family of the man he killed requires ₱50 million.

In the Philippines, Eldon’s wife Mariel is scrambling to raise the money to save her husband’s life when a wealthy ex-boyfriend approaches her with a lucrative offer—in exchange for one last night together.

This OFW teleserye was nominated for Best Daytime Series at the 34th PMPC Star Awards for Television in 2021; and in 2024, Latin Media Corporation bought rights to air a dubbed version of the drama in Latin America.

This short-lived OFW teleserye stars Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil in their final series as a love team.

Set in Croatia, OFW Billie (Soberano) goes on dates to save on food and get gifts and freebies for her housemates, while Filipino tourist Gabo travels to the country to find himself. One day, Billie finds an aimless Gabo lying on the street and takes him under her wing. Eventually, they develop feelings for each other and fight to make it work.

The show was gaining a fan following in the first quarter of 2020 but was cut short at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series’ home network, ABS-CBN was also forced to pause operations in May 2020 after a cease-and-desist order from the National Telecommunications Commission. ABS-CBN lost its franchise to air in the same year and pivoted to becoming a content creation company, while Soberano and Gil have gone on to pursue individual projects locally and internationally.

After working hard abroad and even spending time apart to save up for their dreams, former OFWs Anton (Nacino) and Millie (Kurdi) believe their fortunes in the Philippines are on the way up. They could never be more wrong.

Promised a luxurious lifestyle, the couple are lured into an investment scam by a fellow Filipino from their time in the Middle East. They recruit others into the scam, only to realize that things are wrong when their money disappears—along with the cash of the other people they had innocently encouraged into investing.

As they lose friends, family, and everything they worked for, Anton swears to make things right. He disappears in the middle of the night, leaving a pool of blood on the kitchen floor and a desperate wife searching for answers.

In an interview with the Philippine Star, Director Mark Reyes said he was inspired to tell Anton and Millie’s story because of recent news about Filipinos here and abroad who have lost their money to scams.

“Everyone should beware or be careful,” he said. “That is true since getting scammed takes a toll not only on the victims but also on their loved ones.”

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