The red lanterns are out, the aroma of incense is wafting in the air and young lady majorettes are twirling their batons to the rhythmic beating of the drums.
It is just hours before midnight in Nakpil, the district that never sleeps, and in the Temple of Taoism, a crowd has already gathered, waiting for the Year of the Pig to usher in.
There’s a sea of men, women, and children in bright red shirts, spilling over the road.
Earlier in the day, it was even more chaotic in Binondo, Manila’s famed Chinatown with its blazing spectacle of Chinese Lunar Year festivities.
To ordinary Filipinos, this year’s celebrations may seem just another version of the yearly fanfare.
Chinese from mainland
But Binondo old-timers say there is something so different now and the changes are stark and telling.
“Chinese from the mainland are all over. Before it was just the Chinese-Filipinos, but now it’s the Chinese from the mainland who are dominating the celebrations,” said a Tsinoy businessman from Binondo.
It was not the first time I heard about the influx of mainlanders. In fact, such stories have been told and retold often in whispers as older Tsinoys opt not to make a fuss about it.
But more and more of them are saying they are now being outnumbered by their kin from the mainland.
They are not imagining things.
There really is an influx of Chinese visitors to the country.
Chinese arrivals grew to 1.095 million in 2017 from 736,960 in 2016 and from 510,290 in 2015, according to the Bureau of Immigration.
A Senate investigation on the influx of foreign workers last year found out that the government has issued 115,652 Alien Employment Permits (AEPs) to foreigners from 2015 to 2017.
Of the total, 51,000 permits were issued to Chinese nationals.
Aside from the 115,000 AEPs, 119,000 have been given special working permits, most of whom are working in the Philippine offshore gaming industry.
But there could even be as many as 400,000 Chinese working in the offshore gaming industry, said Senator Franklin Drilon, a former labor secretary.
What’s wrong with the Chinese influx?
Tsinoys have long been part of our history and culture. In fact, we have learned a lot from them, particularly their Confucian work ethics which focus on hard work, determination, frugality, and social harmony.
The late Henry Sy, for instance, started working in his father’s sari-sari store in Quiapo at the age of 12. He later roamed the streets of Manila peddling shoes he brought from enterprising American GIs after the war.
Lucio Tan, the taipan behind an empire of airlines, tobacco, banks and skyscrapers, started as a janitor in a tobacco factory where he mopped floors to pay for school tuition, according to Forbes.
John Gokongwei sold soaps and candles in a market in Cebu when he was young. Now, he has an empire that has grown beyond Philippine shores.
Horror stories
But there is something seemingly so notorious about some Chinese visitors from the mainland who are in our country today.
The horror stories are varied as they are endless. Filipino condominium owners complain about their rowdy Chinese neighbors who smoke, drink, and gamble a lot in the buildings’ common areas.
Chinese buyers have also jacked up condo rental rates, offering landlords higher rates just to get the units.
Last year, in a restaurant in Parañaque, a Chinese chef beat up a Filipina waitress for taking a bite of chicharon. The chef did not have a work permit and could not even produce a passport.
In Pasay, close to 100 Chinese workers were arrested last November for illegally operating an online gambling outfit.
Just the other day, authorities arrested Chinese businessman Kenneth Dong, a suspect in the P6.4-billion drug shipment from China that entered the country in 2017.
It is clear that President Duterte’s pivot to China sparked the strong influx of Chinese migrants to the country. But along with this influx is an apparent rise in other problems.
It’s just business
Throughout China’s long history of around 4,000 years, business has always been an indispensable vehicle for its social development.
It’s no wonder that from China to Manila and anywhere in between, the Chinese want to do business. It’s in their blood and it’s in their history as a people. It’s the reason the ancient Silk Road was established.
Now, it is obvious that they’re seeing the Philippines as the next frontier.
But as a Filipino, I can only hope that the influx of Chinese will not worsen our many social ills — gambling, drugs, kidnapping. We have more than enough problems already.
I write this without any intention of discriminating against Chinese nationals or other foreigners in the country. I am simply retelling what is happening around us.
It’s another year and I am sure, we will see more Chinese migrating to the country.
But I fervently wish the firecrackers and the dragon dances during Monday’s Chinese New Year’s eve celebrations would indeed keep the bad spirits away, whether they’re from Russia, America, China or elsewhere.
May we all have a prosperous, just and peaceful Lunar Year!
Iris Gonzales’ email address is eyesgonzales@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales.