The party-list group Sulong Dignidad hailed the decision of the Bureau of Immigration to tighten its rules on the issuance of permits to foreign nationals working in the country.
“We welcome the new guidelines set by the Bureau of Immigration and hope that the new guidelines would close loopholes being exploited by some foreign workers,” said party-list president and first nominee Rico Paolo Quicho.
“Sulong Dignidad has remained consistent in pushing for clear-cut measures that will prevent illegal foreign workers from shamelessly robbing Filipinos of jobs in our own country,” he added.
Labor officials had earlier admitted that a large number of tourists, most of them Chinese, were able to skirt Philippine labor regulations by entering the country using tourist visas before getting short-term permits to work mostly for online gaming firms.
On May 1, the BI, Department of Justice, Department of Labor and Employment and the Bureau of Internal Revenue signed an agreement on joint guidelines for issuance of work and employment permits to foreign nationals following concerns over their rising number.
“We laud the Bureau of Immigration for acting promptly and implementing measures to protect the dignity of Filipino workers and making sure that our regulations will not be prone to abuse,” Quicho said.
Under the new guidelines, the BI will only issue special work permits to foreigners who intend to work in the country outside of an employment arrangement in 14 permissible areas of work.
On the other hand, an alien intending to work pursuant to an employment arrangement is required to obtain an alien employment permit from DOLE.
However, the AEP will only be issued if no Filipino is available to perform work which the foreign applicant seeks to discharge.