‘Japayukis’ race to avoid new hiring policy’s impact

A group of overseas performing artists lauded the efforts of an administration lawmaker to find an acceptable solution to the looming job crisis facing OPAs as Japan’s new immigration laws take effect on March 15.

Lawyer Ramon Calubag of the Caucus for OPAs Welfare said his group is banking on the privilege speech of Rep. Marcelino Libanan calling for the creation of an Overseas Entertainment Industry Integrity Board that would help protect, secure and assist their members.

According to the group, Libanan "picked up the fight for us, whereas our executive officials left us." Libanan said the issue can be addressed "professionally, responsibly and pro-actively" and stressed that the OPAs’ cause is "more than just entertainment but an economic issue, a morality issue and a sovereignty issue."

On the authority of Speaker Jose de Venecia, Libanan flew to Japan and conferred with industry leaders, stakeholders and Japanese officials. Libanan reportedly met with influential members of the Parliament who promised to keep an open line of communication to address issues that arise with the implementation of the new immigration laws.

Libanan said the joint proposal of the Philippine panel and its Japanese counterpart is that during the first three years of Japan’s new immigration policy, the actual experience of the OPAs gained in Japan would be considered an alternative entry qualification in lieu of the two-year schooling or training period soon to be required, provided the OPAs did not commit any offense or crime while in Japan.

As this developed, thousands of OPAs and their families plan to hold daily pickets starting tomorrow in front of the Japanese Embassy in a last-ditch attempt to press Japan to hold another round of high-level talks with the Philippines before the new immigration policy takes effect.

This was disclosed yesterday by the OPA Koalisyon, an alliance of seven-cluster OPA organizations, even as it criticized the government’s failure to come up with interim implementing guidelines even as the scheduled enforcement of Japan’s new law fast approaches.

According to Alex Capellan, the coalition’s secretary general, the strict Japanese immigration laws are actually meant to reduce the number of employed Filipino artists there and restrict their entry beginning March 15, contrary to previous pronouncements by Philippine and Japan officials. The enforcement of the new policy threatens to displace 80,000 OPAs currently employed in Japan, the group added. — Nestor Etolle