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The Immigration Bureau says the “wandering” Chinese citizens were deported for violating the conditions of their stay amid bribery allegations.
The Philippine Immigration Office (BI) has announced the deportation of almost 3,000 “Chinese citizens in error” for violating the conditions of their stay.
The announcement is considered a damage control act after officials in President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration were accused of selling visas in a multi-million dollar scheme.
Earlier, opposition senator Risa Hontiveros revealed that in 2017, Duterte-appointed officials amassed up to 40 billion Philippine pesos ($ 833 million) in bribes, mainly from Chinese nationals who wanted a smooth visa approval upon arrival at the capital, Manila.
On Tuesday, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente announced that a total of 2,736 Chinese citizens had been ordered to leave the country immediately.
They were reportedly granted visas from January to October this year upon arrival, but did not leave on their scheduled departure date.
Under Philippine law, those who received visas upon arrival cannot extend their stay beyond 30 days.
“More than half of those who received the order to leave were included in the black list of our country,” Morente said in a statement.
“While some were unable to leave due to circumstances, after many flights were canceled due to the pandemic, those left without a sufficient base were included on our blacklist.”
Closer ties with China
The visa-on-arrival program was launched by the Philippine government three years ago to attract Chinese tourists and tour groups as part of a push to strengthen economic and political ties with Beijing under the Duterte administration.
Morente did not say how many other citizens violated the rules in previous years and how many were deported since the program was launched.
According to a May 2020 report, around 90,000 Chinese nationals work in the country’s online gambling industry alone, and many were suspected of making use of the program, avoiding the more complicated work visa application process.
Online gambling operation is prohibited in China.
The Department of Tourism also reported that 1.74 million Chinese citizens arrived in the country in 2019, injecting up to $ 2.3 billion into the local economy.
Morente said the program represents “only about 5 percent” of all Chinese arrivals to the Philippines.
“Most obtained their visas from our foreign positions abroad,” he explained.
But opposition senator Hontiveros said that contrary to those claims, up to 3.8 million Chinese citizens must have paid the 10,000-peso ($ 208) bribe to immigration officials.
The BI suspended the visa program at the time the coronavirus pandemic broke out in China.
In a televised address Tuesday, President Duterte promised to conduct an investigation into corruption in all government agencies.
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