Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22) — The Senate wants the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to coordinate with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) first before issuing special working permits, amid concerns over an influx of Chinese workers to the Philippines.
Senator Joel Villanueva told CNN Philippines’ The Source on Tuesday that senators have added a special provision to the 2019 budget bill mandating the BI to work with the DOLE before it issues special working permits.
Senate Committees on Youth and Labor Chairman Joel Villanueva: Senate agreed that the Bureau of Immigration should cease issuing special work permits | #TheSource https://t.co/sDo55hwVGt pic.twitter.com/Rp4e8sXobM
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) January 22, 2019
“The chair of the Committee on Finance, Senator Loren Legarda, together with all of my colleagues agreed, to have that kind of provision not only in the BI … budget provision, but also with the [DOLE] to see to it that they coordinate with each other and to see to it that any foreign national who intends to work here in the country will be vetted properly,” Villanueva said.
Villanueva added that it is only the DOLE which has the capacity to check whether jobs sought by foreigners could not be performed by Filipinos.
Article 40 of the Labor Code states that the DOLE can issue employment permits to non-resident foreigners seeking employment in the country once it determines that there are no Filipinos who can take on the job being applied for.
“I am not totally against foreigners working in the country. Because I believe, when they give their expertise, they are helping our economy, they are helping our country,” Villanueva said. “My problem is that some foreigners are already dubbed as illegal workers, they are robbing countrymen jobs that are available.”
Legarda committed during the Senate’s plenary session last January 16 to accept a special provision to the 2019 budget bill ensuring that the BI, DOLE and the Justice department would be coordinating with each other in the issuance of working permits for foreigners.
“If we want to correct it, we have the power to do it because the [General Appropriations Act] is the most important law of the land. So I will accept whatever amendment the good senator (Villanueva) would introduce for DOLE to assist the BI in the issuance of special permits,” she said.
The BI has admitted during a Senate probe on the influx of Chinese nationals in the country that it has issued special working permits (SWPs) to foreign workers even if they did not have alien employment permits (AEPs) from DOLE, which are needed for the issuance of a working visa.
The DOLE admitted that there is an “upward trend” of Chinese workers in the Philippines, adding that it has issued AEPs to 115,652 to foreigners from 2015 to 2017. Of these, 51,000 permits were issued to Chinese nationals.
Data from the BI show that last year, 393 foreign nationals were arrested, 304 of whom were Chinese nationals who were overstaying or working without permits.
READ: Immigration bureau tightens screening amid influx of foreign nationals
The BI also said Chinese nationals topped the list of arrested foreign fugitives in 2018.
