Tighter rules for foreign workers ready, Immigration says

MANILA, Philippines — The government will tighten rules on issuing work permits for foreigners, the Bureau of Immigration announced Wednesday, saying this is "to ensure that jobs that can be done by Filipinos will not be given to foreigners."

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a BI press release that the bureau, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Justice have signed joint guidelines on the issuance of work and employment permits to foreign nationals.

"We saw a rise in the number of foreign nationals in the previous years due to emerging industries such as the online gaming industry," Morente said, referring to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, where 138,001 foreign nationals are employed based on DOLE and BI data.

"Issues and challenges only appear now. This has never been a problem in the past because of the relatively smaller number of foreign nationals working in the Philippines then," he also said.

The BI said that it issued 83,670 special work permits in 2018. Those are valid for six months and allow foreigners to "render service" while on a tourist visa. DOLE meanwhile issued 54,241 Alien Employment Permits, which are required for 9(g) visas, a visa "for aliens employed in the country, with contracts usually lasting for one to three years."

BI did not release a copy of the new guidelines, but said that aside from tighter rules, it will also require the alien applicant to show proof of tax payments.

READ: DOF pegs Philippine offshore gaming operators income tax losses at P32 billion

Morente said that the new rules will not make it difficult for foreigners working or doing business in the Philippines to do so. 

"We have made it easier for foreign nationals to comply with our laws," he said. "The procedures are simple, the process is now quicker, so there’s really no excuse for foreign nationals to not follow."

The number of foreign workers in the Philippines has raised concerns amid a seeming influx of foreigners, specifically Chinese, into the country.

A total of 2.44 million Chinese arrived in the Philippines from mainland China between January 2016 to May 2018, according to BI data. According to property firm Santos Knight Frank, residential rental rates in the areas near Manila Bay surged by 62.2 during the first half of 2018 because of the influx.

RELATED: DOLE: There should be preferential treatment for Filipinos on foreign-funded projects

Anti-Chinese sentiment

A dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea, the portion of the South China Sea that Manila claims as part of Philippine territory, and reports of bad behavior by Chinese tourists has revived anti-Chinese sentiment, a phenomenon that worries Meah Ang See, the Chinese-Filipino president of Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran (Kaisa), a group working for the "integration of the ethnic Chinese into mainstream Philippine society."

In an online exchange in November 2018, Ang See said: "Right now, what I'm seeing on social media, you have people lashing out against the Chinese in general as a people but there's also from time to time, the general public is also cautioned by the regular folks out there: 'Wait, this is a government issue, it’s not their... they don't control their government either.' It shouldn't be racial at all."

READ: 'Frustration over sea dispute no reason to hate Chinese people'

Ang See said then that there will always be racial undertones, or even outright racial discrimination, "when there are bigger macro-issues involved."

"For example: This is in the 1920s, so matagal-tagal na. Nagkaroon ng rice crisis sa Pilipinas, so that’s your macro. Dahil 'yung macro issue ay may rice shortage and nagkataon na nagtitinda ng bigas ay Chinese, therefore naging racial issue: ‘"Yung mga Instik kasi hino-hoard ‘yung bigas para magmahal,’" she said.

(For example, in the 1920's... there was a rice crisis in the Philippines, so that's your macro. Because of the macro issue of a rice shortage and it so happened that Chinese were selling rice, it therefore became a racial issue. 'The Chinese were hoarding rice to push prices up.'")