AT least P5 billion in additional monthly revenues are expected to be generated by the government from taxing foreign workers of the so-called Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) sector.
At the 33rd Edsa People Power Revolution Anniversary job and trade fair on Monday, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said this is part of their targets in their looming inspection of Pogo firms nationwide.
Last week, it was announced the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will be joining the government composite team tasked to inspect Pogo firms.
Some lawmakers had earlier expressed alarm over the reported rise in the number of Chinese workers in the country last year. The majority of them are said to be working in Pogo companies without the necessary permits.
“Many of them [foreign workers] are not reported. So we expect to get a big revenue for them [once they are registered],” Lopez said.
The inspections are initially scheduled to start in the first quarter of the year once the list of foreign workers from government agencies and privates firms are “cleansed” and “consolidated.”
In a Senate hearing last week, it was revealed there were inconsistencies in the records of foreign workers from the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and other government agencies.
Additional safeguards
THE DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) said the creation of a master list of foreign workers will be threshed out during the scheduled interagency meeting on Friday.
Other matters to be discussed at the meeting are the additional safeguards for the BI in issuing Special Work Permits (SWP).
Despite BI’s pronouncements earlier this month that it has imposed additional requirements for SWP applications, BLE said the new adjustment was still not stringent enough.
“We have a counterproposal in the recent issuance of the Bureau of Immigration, which we would like to thresh out once we sit down with them,” BLE Director Dominique R. Tutay told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
The DOLE earlier proposed limiting SWP applications to certain jobs as well as for it to be issued before the arrival of its users in the country.
SWP is a document issued by the BI to foreigners who will be working in the country for less than six months. Those who will be employed in the country for more than six months must transact with the labor department. Lawmakers blamed the alleged lax regulations of BI in issuing SWPs for the surge in the number of Chinese workers in the country.
From 2015 to September 2018, BI was able to issue SWPs to 205,218 Chinese nationals. During the same period the DOLE was only able to grant 85,496 alien employment permits to Chinese workers.
Duterte’s remarks
IN a related development, labor groups condemned the latest controversial remark at the weekend of President Duterte, which sounded in favor of Chinese workers, who have no permits, to stay in the country.
“’Yung mga Chinese dito hayaan mo ’yan na dito magtrabaho. Hayaan mo [Those Chinese, let them stay here to work],” Duterte said in a speech last Saturday.
Duterte said this was to protect the 300,000 Filipinos in China from possible deportation in case the Chinese government decides to retaliate.
The statement drew the ire of Federation of Free Workers (FFW) Vice President Julius Cainglet, who said Duterte’s statement is irresponsible since it encourages violations of country’s laws in restricting the entry of foreign workers. “We have laws that govern the employment of foreigners and yet there he goes giving a blanket authority to just allow them to work in the country without regard for our laws,” Cainglet said.
Partido Manggagawa chair Renato Magtubo agreed with Cainglet in saying Duterte may be held liable if he allows foreigners without the necessary permits to continue to stay in the country.
“Making an unfounded fear as argument for not implementing our laws on employing foreign nationals violating the same is a dereliction of duty on the part of the President and his labor secretary,” Magtubo said.
For its part, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said only foreigners with the necessary permits should be allowed to work in the country to ensure their welfare is protected.
“Illegal migrant workers are vulnerable to violation and exploitation of their basic rights as workers as they cannot be provided protection by our laws,” TUCP President Raymond Mendoza said. Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III later clarified that Duterte’s statement only covered Chinese workers.
‘Fire them’
RELATEDLY, opposition Sen. Francis N. Pangilinan prodded Duterte on Monday to sack DOLE and BI officers linked to the illegal entry of hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers into the country.
“Fire DOLE and BI appointees and officials who allowed the entry of 400,000 Chinese illegals,” Pangilinan said.
“File criminal cases against them. Uphold the rule of law and without fanfare deport these illegals,” Pangilinan pressed.
The Duterte administration, he said, “should not be afraid of China in the face of hundreds of thousands of their citizens working here illegally.”
In a statement, the opposition senator warned that what the Duterte administration should fear is “the anger of millions of our people who remain jobless, while we give special treatment to these Chinese illegals.”
Pangilinan pointed out that nothing has been heard from the government in several incidents involving China, citing previous incidents—illegal drugs coming from China and China’s continuing expansion in the South China Sea.
With a report by Butch Fernandez