THE Senate will investigate on Wednesday the case of the 1,316 illegal Chinese workers in Clark, Pampanga, who were arrested by Immigration agents on November 25.
The probe will be led by the Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development led by Senator Joel Villanueva.
Villanueva has expressed alarm over what he said was the rising number of illegal foreign workers in the Philippines in manufacturing, construction, the power grids and in the mining sector.
“These illegal foreign workers are displacing our Filipino workers. [The Labor Department] should implement strong monitoring policies for migrant workers to control this influx,” Villanueva said.
He made his statement even as Macau-based gambling tycoon Jack Lam on Friday stood firm that he did not bribe Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II over the arrest of the 1,316 Chinese nationals at the Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino Hotel on November 24.
At a forum in Quezon City, Raymond Fortun, Lam’s legal counsel, confirmed the reports that Lam, along with a Filipino-Chinese interpreter and retired police superintendent Wally Sombero, met with Aguirre at the Shangri-La Hotel at the Global Bonifacio City on November 26 “to let him know that he was a legitimate businessman.”
“There was certainly a meeting so he could explain to the Secretary he was engaged in lawful businesses. Nothing more,” Fortun told reporters. “Definitely, there was no intention to look for a godfather. That was not the purpose of the meeting.”
Officials from the Bureau of Immigration, Department of Labor and Employment and Philippine National Police will be invited to attend the Senate hearing on December 7.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines says there were more than 3,500 illegal foreign workers in the country as of 2015.
The labor group says the undocumented foreign workers are commonly employed in construction, manufacturing, electronics and in the service industries in Metro Manila, Central Visayas, Davao, Zamboanga, Bataan and Batangas.
The Labor Department enforces the rules on the issuance of alien employment permits while Immigration is responsible for regulating the entry, stay and exit of foreign nationals in the country.