THE Department of Tourism (DOT) is looking to amend the policy of granting Special Resident Retiree’s Visas (SRRV) to foreign nationals, specifically on the minimum age requirement, which is currently at 35 years old.
“I have directed GM Bienvenido Chy of the PRA [Philippine Retirement Authority] to review and change this long-standing policy. We will move for its immediate repeal,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat in an interview with the BusinessMirror.
This developed as lawmakers on Monday expressed alarm over the rising number of young Chinese retirees in the Philippines, during the DOT’s budget hearing. The PRA, a government-owned and -controlled corporation which promotes the country as an ideal retirement destination, is under the DOT, and is chaired by Romulo Puyat.
“Even before our good senators had raised the matter, we’ve been asking to PRA to validate their data on the number of foreign retirees in the country, and monitor where they are,” she added.
“And prior to Covid, we had urged the PRA to beef up its promotions to other countries with large aging populations like Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States, which has numerous retiring Filipino-Americans,” Romulo Puyat stressed.
During DOT’s budget hearing, lawmakers learned that of the 70,520 foreign retirees in the Philippines, the bulk at 27,678 were mainland Chinese; followed by South Koreans at 14,144; Indians 6,120; Taiwanese 4,851; Japanese 4,016; Americans 3,704; Chinese from Hong Kong 1,870; British 1,595; Germans 792; Australians 752; and other nationalities 4,498.
The PRA, a creation of the Marcos administration in 1985 under Executive Order 1037 (Philippine Retirement Park System), was transferred to the Board of Investments by the Macapagal-Arroyo administration in 2001 (EO 26), then to the DOT under Republic Act 9353 (Tourism Act of 2009), authored by Sen. Richard Gordon.
In 1993 the government amended the implementing rules and regulations of EO 1037, which reduced the minimum age requirements of foreigners applying for SRRVs from 40 to 35.
For her part, Sen. Nancy Binay also urged the PRA to review its existing policies to lessen the probability of foreign nationals exploiting the SRRV to stay in the Philippines.
She said the PRA should tighten its vetting process for foreign retirees after finding out the minimum age requirement for SRRV applicants is 35 years old. She also noted that for a foreigner to retire in the country, “they can either deposit US$50,000 in a bank, or buy a condo unit worth P2.5 million.”
Binay was alarmed that Chinese nationals who are 35 years old, fall in the bracket of the so-called “soldier’s age,” thus raising a national security issue—an issue flagged by Gordon in the Senate hearing. Foreigners, Binay said, could also exploit the minimum age requirement for SRRV applicants to work in the country illegally.
“We know that at 35 years old, their bodies are still strong. And we have an issue about our own citizens getting displaced in jobs, due to the entry of Chinese nationals in our country,” she said in Filipino, adding that these retirees “could actually be working in Philippine offshore gaming operations or could be working in Divisoria. So we should study this [SRRV policy] because they could be using it to circumvent the law since they are not allowed to work here.”