The number of foreign nationals (FN) who secured an Alien Employment Permit (AEP) has started to pick up in the third quarter as more establishments in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) sector resumed their operations.
In its latest AEP report obtained by the BusinessMirror, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said it was able to release 14,959 AEPs from July to September.
This, after the number of AEPs issued by the agency dropped to 5,311 from April to June with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic from 62,934 in the first quarter of the year.
Of the 83,204 newly released AEPs this year, 69,867 or 83.97 percent were given to FNs employed in the POGO establishments.
Still Chinese-dominated
Chinese nationals still make up most of the AEP applications in POGO-related establishments this year with 62,545.
The Vietnamese came in second place with 2,319, followed by Indonesians (1,230), Malaysians (1,215), Myanmari (1,053), Taiwanese (777), Koreans (355), and Thais (252).
The remaining 121 were issued to Singaporeans, Cambodians and other nationalities.
AEP is a document FNs must get from DOLE to be allowed to work in the country for more than six months.
DOLE attributed the trend to the increase in the number of POGO-related establishments that managed to secure an Authorization to Operate (AO) from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).
“Of the 338 POGO-related establishments, 152 establishments were granted authority to resume operations as of 1 October 2020,” DOLE said in its report.
It noted that among those granted the AO, only two are Local Gaming Agents, “which operate in the country, mostly acting as representative of offshore POGO licensees.”
Lower than expected
With many POGO-related firms still not able to operate, DOLE said the number of AEP it issue this year may be less than 159,000 by year-end.
“It should be noted that early projections posited that 159,119 to 203,080 AEPs will be issued in 2020, which was calculated based on the 158,710 AEPs issued in the previous year,” DOLE said.
“However, as the economic and health impacts of the pandemic continue to manifest, AEP applications have yet to regain [their] momentum, bringing into question current projections,” it added.
Some lawmakers have expressed concern over the continuous operation of POGOs in the country due to the heavy reliance on FNs rather than local workers as well as the other problems associated with it such as money laundering and prostitution.
Despite these issues, there is currently no government policy banning POGO operations in the country.