[ad_1]
The Department of Tourism (DOT) is seeking to amend the policy of granting Special Retiree Resident Visas (SRRV) to foreigners, specifically regarding the minimum age requirement, which is currently 35 years old.
“I have directed GM Welcome Chy from the PRA [Philippine Retirement Authority] to review and change this long-standing policy. We will seek its immediate repeal ”, said the Secretary of Tourism, Bernadette Rómulo Puyat, in an interview with the Business mirror.
This unfolded as lawmakers voiced alarm at the growing number of young Chinese retirees in the Philippines on Monday during the DOT budget hearing. The PRA, a government-owned and controlled corporation that promotes the country as an ideal retirement destination, is under DOT and is chaired by Romulo Puyat.
“Even before our good senators had raised the matter, we have been asking the PRA to validate their data on the number of foreign retirees in the country and monitor where they are,” he added.
“And before Covid, we had urged the PRA to strengthen its promotions in other countries with large aging populations such as Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States, which has numerous retired Filipino-Americans,” emphasized Romulo Puyat.
During the DOT budget hearing, lawmakers learned that of the 70,520 foreign retirees in the Philippines, the majority, 27,678, were mainland Chinese; followed by the South Koreans with 14,144; Indians 6,120; 4,851 Taiwanese; Japanese 4,016; Americans 3,704; Hong Kong Chinese 1,870; British 1,595; Germans 792; Australians 752; and other nationalities 4,498.
(See, “Gordon Raises the Alarm on Growing Number of Chinese Retirees in the PHL,” in BusinessMirror, October 19, 2020.)
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 DOT under Republic Act 9353 (Tourism Act of 2009), written by Senator Richard Gordon.
In 1993, the government amended the rules and regulations implementing EO 1037, which lowered the minimum age requirements for foreigners applying for SRRV from 40 to 35.
For her part, Senator Nancy Binay also urged the PRA to review its existing policies to decrease the likelihood that foreigners who exploit the SRRV will remain in the Philippines.
She said the PRA should toughen its screening process for foreign retirees after discovering that the minimum age requirement for SRRV applicants is 35. He also pointed out that for a foreigner to retire in the country, “he can deposit US $ 50,000 in a bank or buy a condo worth P2.5 million.”
Binay was alarmed that Chinese citizens who are 35 years old fall into the group of the so-called “age of the soldier”, which raises a national security problem, a problem pointed out by Gordon at the Senate hearing. Foreigners, Binay said, could also take advantage of the minimum age requirement for SRRV applicants to work illegally in the country.
“We know that at 35, their bodies are still strong. And we have the problem that our own citizens are displaced in their jobs, due to the entry of Chinese citizens into our country, “he said in Filipino, adding that these retirees” could be working in foreign gambling operations in Philippines or they 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. “
