Only 118 foreign workers were found to be illegally working in the more than 60 registered Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations or POGO establishments inspected by the Labor department.
There are an estimated 150,000 Chinese workers employed in POGOs in the Philippines.
POGOs are offshore gaming operations that offer games of chance via the Internet, network or software that brings revenues to the Philippines.
According to the DOLE-Bureau of Labor Employment Director Dominique Tutay, they had already recommended to Immigration the deportation of the 118 foreign workers illegally working here.
“Many of the foreign workers in POGOs have Alien Employment Permits issued by the DOLE while others have Special Working Permits issued by the Bureau of Immigration,” Tutay said.
On the other hand, Immigration estimates that there are more than 200,000 young Chinese working in another country, mostly in POGOs and underground online gaming networks.
Immigration says more than 1.3-million Chinese visitors arrived here from January to September this year and, and that thousands of them are now believed working illegally in various establishments here as construction workers and security guards and chefs, among others.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III had earlier ordered the deployment of more than 500 labor inspectors to monitor foreign workers to make sure the government was now disadvantaged by the POGOs that are said to be employing foreign workers, and mostly Chinese without work permits.