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Xave Gregorio (Philstar.com) – March 25, 2021 – 12:49 pm
MANILA, Philippines – Foreigners authorized to work in the Philippines declined for the first time in 11 years last year, but remained high as employees in the controversial overseas gaming industry remained despite some closures.
The labor department issued 106,610 foreign employment permits (AEP) to foreigners last year, nearly a third less than 158,710 in 2019, government data showed.
The decline was the first since 2009, a year after the global financial crisis, although the scale of the decline was larger this time (it was only 3.02% back then) after territories put up travel barriers to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
It is not clear whether these foreigners with PEAs entered the country or not. For one thing, AEPs only allow a foreign national to obtain work visas from another agency, the Immigration Office. They are allowed to work while waiting for visas, but would have to leave if the application is ultimately denied. AEPs are only valid for one year.
In total, the BI issued 30,986 work visas last year, 60.1% more than the levels of the previous year. “Number of AEP and Sec. 9 (g) the work visa may differ,” said the DOLE, for several reasons, including, foreigners “issued by AEP did not advance with the application” for a visa.
The AEP issuance was expected to sink, especially after closures were applied from March to June and international flights were banned. At the time, Philippine Overseas Gaming Operators (POGOs), whose employees have been driving AEP adoption in recent years, had also shut down before allowing operations to resume in May, while most of the other local businesses stopped.
Most of the PEAs in the Chinese corner
Of the 295 POGO-related companies, 160 were granted a license to restart as of December 15 last year. According to data from the labor department, almost 67% of POGO employees are foreigners, most of whom are Chinese.
Unsurprisingly, the Chinese still accounted for the largest share of AEP beneficiaries at 83,796, representing 78.6% of the total, although the figure was down 34.2% year-on-year. A distant second place was the Vietnamese with 4,197 AEP, and third were the Japanese with 2,660 AEP.
Aside from Chinese tourists, the apparent increase in Chinese land-based workers appears to be the only material economic benefit the Duterte administration gained from its friendlier approach to its aggressive neighbor. However, even the benefits they bring in through spending have been largely offset by numerous evidence of tax evasion, illegal job search, and even public petty crime.
For the labor department, it has been insisted that foreigners do not want to take jobs away from Filipinos, since where they find employment, specific skills such as command of a foreign language are needed. From a procedural point of view, this is ensured by government “labor market tests” to assess whether a required skill is not available locally to justify foreign hiring.
But for Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson for the Associated Labor Unions – Trade Union Council of the Philippines, a high AEP emission during a crisis year means that something is wrong with the current process.
“Last week, the House (of Representatives) and the Senate adopted our proposal that the labor market test be improved not only by posting AEP applicants in national newspapers and social media. But now, an additional measure to the labor market test is for local industries to identify positions or skills that are not present in their industry, ”he said in a text message.
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