Pinoy entertainers train their sights on South Korea

Filipino entertainers displaced by stricter immigration rules in Japan are now setting their sights on South Korea.

South Korea is slowly becoming an alternative destination for overseas performing artists (OPAs) with first-class karaoke bars mushrooming there, local recruitment agencies reported yesterday.

Cristina Edquiban, president of Peak Manpower Resources, said South Korea is now hiring more and more Filipinos artists, including those displaced by the new regulations in Japan.

"(The) Korean market is ripe for deployment of our entertainers, many of whom are now jobless after their promotions agencies failed to acquire visas from the Japanese embassy for their return to Japan," Edquiban said.

She noted that Korean working conditions are also better and offer more protection to workers.

Unlike in Japan, Edquiban said Korea provides a one-year contract for OPAs and a monthly payment of some P100,000.

Edquiban added that Philippine labor attaché to South Korea Rey Regalado is also implementing very strict guidelines in the accreditation of clubs and personally inspects each site that requests accreditation.

The stricter guidelines may result in a slower process of approving working papers, but local recruitment agencies favor this procedure so that the Korean market will be able to keep up its present standards, Edquiban pointed out.

Edquiban advised OPAs to apply only with licensed recruitment agencies with valid job orders from the POEA to avoid any problems associated with illegal recruitment.

"OPAs have no welfare or protection benefits and can easily be trafficked to the prostitution market if they will try to leave the country without valid working permits," she said.

Thousands of Filipino entertainers have lost job opportunities in Japan since new immigration regulations adopted by Tokyo aimed at curbing the worsening human trafficking and prostitution problem in their country were implemented March last year.

It is estimated that OPAs remit some $1 billion to the country annually. — Mayen Jaymalin