THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is anticipating a decline in the number of new foreign nationals (FN) working in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Labor Assistant Secretary OIC Dominique R. Tutay said Manila’s travel ban on China, considered as the epicenter of the global spread of COVID-19, is expected to limit new entrants in POGOs.
In January, the Philippine government imposed the ban on China, Hong Kong and Macau in an attempt to limit the exposure of Filipinos to possible carriers of the virus.
In the first two months of the year, Tutay said 20,000 FNs have applied for Alien Employment Permit (AEP) in the DOLE’s regional offices. Of the figure, 15,000 are for POGO-related employment.
An AEP is a document issued by DOLE’s regional offices to FNs so they could work in the country for more than six months.
Tutay said there been a decline in the DOLE’s issuance of AEPs as the agency has become more strict in issuing permits after learning that some applicants have been using duplicate taxpayer identification numbers (TIN), which is a requirement for securing an AEP.
The DOLE official also said their more stringent AEP processing rules have resulted in at least 2,000 backlog applications.
However, she said the DOLE has reduced the backlog, which was initially pegged at around 6,000 to 8,000 applications.