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Chinese workers remain in the Philippines despite some POGO closures
MANILA, Philippines – Chinese workers employed by local gambling companies abroad never left despite the fact that some of these companies closed when the pandemic struck.
His decision to stay, in turn, kept the labor department issuing foreign employment permits (AEPs) to foreign workers even at the height of the closures. From January to September, 83,204 AEPs had been issued, an increase from 83,057 in the same period last year, 82.2% of which were for Chinese citizens.
By sector, a large portion of new AEP workers were employed in “administrative and support service activities” at 72,883, a segment that Labor Undersecretary Dominique Rubia-Tutay said included workers in gaming operators overseas (POGO) of the Philippines.
“For us, (the number of AEP) is not high. If you look at it in our general employment situation, it is less than 1% (of the total number of jobs)… ”, said Tutay in a telephone interview.
“But these are regular jobs for foreign nationals allowed by current Philippine laws and policies,” he added.
Several factors help explain the current surge in Chinese workers, while the POGOs are reportedly closing. One of them is the likelihood that the AEPs were applied months ago when the restrictions were not yet applied and were only approved thereafter, Tutay said.
The POGOs did not completely leave the Philippines either. According to data from the gaming regulator, 36 of the 55 accredited POGO operators were allowed to resume operations as of November. The number rises to 152, though down from 338 before the pandemic when other critical services for POGOs are considered, including IT systems used for gambling that also employed people.
“No Filipino can accept the POGO operating job,” Tutay said.
“POGO’s operations (are) mainly driven also by Chinese players, who (are) abroad. And then the programs that are being developed are also in Chinese, so the characters, the programming, the information technologies, all this is in Chinese, “he explained.
Under the Duterte administration, the exponential increase in Chinese workers locally has only fueled the Filipinos’ adverse attitudes toward the Chinese, a direct consequence of China’s aggressiveness in the Western Philippine Sea.
This, in turn, has made Duterte’s turn to China a tough sell for Filipinos, exacerbated by anecdotal reports of Chinese misbehavior at tourist destinations, continents taking jobs away from Filipinos, and even evasion from taxes committed by some finance-run POGO companies. Department.
In addition to Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Koreans, and Lebanese top the list of foreign workers in the Philippines. In addition to POGOs, foreigners were also employed primarily in manufacturing, information and communications, wholesale and retail, construction, and finance.
Most of the AEPs, 62,934, were also issued in the first quarter, when the health crisis was unfolding. That number fell to 5,311 in the second quarter, but had since recovered to 14,359 in the last 3 months when the economy rebooted.
In some industries, Leonardo Lanzona, a labor economist at Ateneo de Manila University, said that overseas displaced Filipino workers who have adopted skills abroad can help return some foreign jobs to Filipinos. But not in the POGO.
“I’m not sure if the companies, the POGOs themselves, would be willing to invest in the training of Filipino workers, unless the Filipino made his own investment,” he said in a telephone interview.
“It’s easier for the company to just hire Chinese, especially if they are looking for a language. So, in effect, they could save on training and other types of costs, ”he said.
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