Illegal Chinese workers in the country should be deported, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday, but at the same time said that the government must exercise caution as other Filipino workers may suffer the same fate overseas.
“They should be deported. But in the same manner, you should be careful because when you point to the Chinese, you also point yourself at us,” Duterte told reporters after the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport on Tuesday.
The President said that the matter of deporting illegal Chinese workers in the country should be approached carefully as there are also Filipinos working overseas “illegally.”
“There are so many thousands of Filipinos working there or went inside China as tourists and working there,” he said.
“Remember: It’s not just exploiting the story about the Chinese here, we’re doing the same thing. In Malaysia, a lot of our women are there in Indonesia, China, [and] Korea,” he added.
Asked if the government would accept the reality of illegal employment overseas, the President said it was not okay, but there has to be an arraignment.
“If you think that you are at a loss, at a disadvantage because there are so many Chinese nationals working here, remember that we have the same equal amount of people Filipinos who are there working in China. But they did not report anyone. So maybe you can just tell them [Chinese] to go home,” he added.
“Otherwise, if you start to get rough on this issue, there is a distinct possibility that it will also happen to you. So, you know when you sail your ship of state, you avoid turbulent waters,” the President said.
Duterte made the remark following the decision of the Senate to conduct a probe into the increasing number of illegal foreign workers in the country, particularly Chinese nationals.
On Monday, labor officials told a Senate inquiry that some 50,000 of the 115,000 alien employment permits were given to Chinese nationals from 2015 to 2017.
The Bureau of Immigration, however, said that online gaming played a factor on the increasing number of Chinese workers in the country.
Earlier this month, the Immigration bureau has already deported 36 Chinese nationals who were earlier caught illegally working in online gambling dens and in shopping malls in Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros said the influx of Chinese workers in the country is “a direct assault on the country’s sovereignty and economy.”
Citing the case of Chinese workers in the Philippine Off-shore Gaming Operators industry, Hontiveros said the Chinese workers were not desperate people from a poor country forced to go abroad and seek job opportunities in a rich country.
“These are citizens of a superpower nation coming to a developing country to take advantage of our lax laws and government negligence,” she said.
Hontiveros added that the Chinese government’s indifference and lack of strong action on the matter, the threat of a debt trap from Chinese loans and their continuing incursions into our national territory seem to point to a concerted effort to undermine the country’s national integrity.
She said that these are not the actions of a friendly state but rather of a bully who thinks our country is its province and playground.
“I call on the Duterte government to take strong actions to address this issue. First, it must ensure that jobs which Filipino workers are qualified for be made available to us,” said Hontiveros.
“It must also assure that workers have the widest access to retraining and retooling programs to keep up with changes in the workplace and develop new skills to respond to modern work life and the dawn of automation,” added the Akbayan senator.
Hontiveros said the government must also see to it that the POGO industry is strictly regulated, revenues are monitored, taxes are paid and our facilities are not used to commit crimes.
She likewise pressed for total transparency in the agreements signed by the Philippine government with China.
She said the government should bare all the details of the said agreements.
“Are there provisions that guarantee the employment of Chinese nationals in our infrastructure projects to the great detriment of Filipino workers? How do they affect our immigration and labor laws and even the Constitution?
As a country with a large number of citizens working abroad, Hontiveros said the Philippines is not against foreign workers.
“What we oppose is the government’s negligence and timidity on this issue that has made our people, particularly Filipino workers, second class citizens in their own country,” said Hontiveros.
Meanwhile, detained Senator Leila de Lima urged the Senate Games and Amusement Committee to re-examine and possibly revise laws regulating the operations of casino-entertainment resorts, online gaming sites and junket casinos in the country.
In filing Senate Resolution No. 953, De Lima said the loose regulatory policies to monitor the casino resorts, online gaming sites, and junket casinos may make the country more susceptible to money laundering, fraud, and other illegal activities.
“The possibility of money laundering also concerns some industry players as the shroud of Internet anonymity coupled with loose regulatory policies may leave the industry susceptible to fraud and other illicit activities associated with high-stakes gambling,” she said.
To highlight its adverse effects, De Lima recalled the bribery scandal of self-proclaimed online gaming industry expert Wenceslao Sombero Jr., who was caught on CCTV handing over payoff money to Bureau of Immigration officers for the release of Chinese nationals arrested for illegally operating online gambling in the country in 2016.
“Note that there are a number of Chinese gambling companies and Chinese gamblers in the country because gambling is illegal in China and is heavily opposed by its Communist government.”
The Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. has authorized 57 foreign gaming companies referred to as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators to operate in the Philippines, as of September 2018.
Currently, there are a total of four integrated casino-entertainment resorts operating in Metro Manila conveniently situated in close proximity to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to cater to their high-rolling, foreign clientele. A fifth integrated casino-entertainment resort in Manila is confirmed to open in 2020.
Aside from these, more casinos are scheduled to open in the coming years despite Mr. Duterte’s moratorium on new casinos effective Jan. 2018, which may place the gambling and casino industry at serious risk for market saturation and oversupply.
De Lima, who chairs the Senate Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development Committee, underscored the need for the Senate to scrutinize the effects of the Philippine gambling industry from multiple perspectives to look at its overall impact to the country and the citizenry.
“Apart from its purported positive economic impacts, there are nevertheless lingering questions regarding the social costs of the influx and proliferation of integrated casino-entertainment resorts and POGOs within the country,” she said.
“A comprehensive and inclusive policy that seeks to address these issues should be of utmost importance if this industry is to truly benefit the Filipino people,” she added.
In filing the resolution, De Lima also expressed concern that dealers—including Filipinas—for online games are placed at even more risk of sexual harassment and exploitation by players online because they have to wear revealing clothes.
Also, considering that most POGO technical support employees are Chinese, De Lima noted that locals are reportedly facing high rental rates and rowdiness of some Chinese workers who have taken up residency near POGO’s office spaces.
Last May, De Lima filed SR No. 751, pressing for a Senate inquiry into the influx of Chinese nationals employed and residing in the Philippines which, among others, triggers property surge on many developed areas.
De Lima maintained that the Senate investigation is needed to establish and institutionalize a legal framework and strengthen applicable laws that can effectively and efficiently regulate and monitor the operations and activities, and address the social costs, related to integrated casino-entertainment resorts, online gambling, and gambling-based tourism in the country.