The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Tuesday it would likely recommend the deportation of some 126 foreign nationals (FN) found working in the country without any permit.
Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Dominique R. Tutay said they learned during their ongoing “validation” process for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) and their service providers that the said FNs are not documented with the DOLE and Bureau of Immigration (BI).
The said FNs were given due time apply to secure their Alien Employment Permit (AEP) from DOLE, but they apparently failed to do so.
“Our last recourse is to provide BI with the name since they will be [the] ones to initiate their deportation,” Tutay told reporters in an ambush interview.
She said they are now just gathering the birthdays of the concerned FNs before making the submission to BI. Tutay earlier said birthdays are mainly being used by the BI to identify FNs in the Chinese-dominated POGO since they have similar names.
The labor official said they are anticipating to endorse hundreds of other FNs to BI by the end of the month once they finally validate the list of FN employees submitted by POGOs and their service providers by December 15.
“We have to complete the data before we release it to the media. Apparently, there are a few hundreds, which we initially saw to have no permits. We are still validating this,” Tutay said.
Tutay added that they have already validated the FN employees list of 40 POGO service providers. She said another 40 POGO service providers are going through the same process.
“We also have list [of FN workers] coming from Regions 3 and from the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, which is in Region 2,” Tutay said.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes