75,000 Filipino entertainers left jobless

At least 75,000 Filipino entertainers have lost job opportunities since the Japanese government imposed stricter hiring rules for overseas performing artists (OPAs) last March, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

A senior labor official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said DOLE has noticed a 90-percent employment decline among OPAs in Japan.

"We used to process about 80,000 working permits for Filipino entertainers annually and it dropped to 8,000 following the implementation of the new hiring regulations," the labor official said.

This dramatic drop, he said, prompted DOLE to close down its Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Osaka last November.

"We have no work to do so DOLE had to close down the Osaka office and so all the processing of working permits is now being done by the POLO office in Tokyo," he said.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas admitted the hiring of Filipino entertainers has been seriously affected by the new immigration regulations adopted by Tokyo aimed at curbing the worsening human trafficking and prostitution problem in their country.

However Sto. Tomas said the Philippine Overseas Employment (POEA) only recorded a 30-percent slump in OPA deployment to Japan. — Mayen Jaymalin