The influx of Chinese workers

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

It’s simply incomprehensible why a country that’s exporting workers in the millions would open its doors to foreign workers in jobs that Filipinos could easily fill. It’s like importing mangos when you are one of the world’s biggest producers of that fruit.

So we ask: Why is the Philippines opening up its labor market to foreign workers, in particular Chinese workers, when it cannot provide enough jobs for its own people?

The presence of thousands of Chinese workers – both legal and illegal – came to the fore last month following the arrest of 87 Chinese and 16 Filipinos suspected of running unauthorized online gambling platforms in the country.

Figures from the Department of Labor and Employment show that since 2015, close to 116,000 foreigners have been issued an alien employment permit (AEP), which allows them to work legally in the Philippines. An AEP will only be issued if there is no Filipino willing or competent enough to do the job being offered to a foreigner.

Chinese nationals accounted for the biggest bulk of foreign workers holding AEPs, numbering some 52,000, or about 45 percent of the total. This number does not include those who are working without permits.

They are said to be working in manufacturing, information and communications, construction, and administrative and support services. These are fields that local workers can easily fit in and yet many of qualified Filipinos have to look for jobs overseas to gain employment.

An analysis of the economic benefits of the Philippines’ pro-China policy by Ateneo economic professors Ronald Mendoza and Miann Banaag showed that the number of Chinese workers with work permits grew by about 108 percent between 2015 and 2016 in comparison to a mere 7 percent growth for Japanese and Korean workers combined. The number of Chinese workers then grew by 27 percent in 2017.

“But while the share of Japanese and Korean investments grew by 18.25 percentage points during this period, Chinese investments share expanded by a mere 0.38 percentage points. Clearly, for a smaller share of investments, the Chinese have been sending more workers into the Philippines,” Mendoza and Banaag wrote.

During a Senate hearing on the influx of Chinese workers, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Joel Villanueva expressed alarm over the situation, which Drilon said deprives thousands of Filipinos to be gainfully employed.

Villanueva expressed frustration that government agencies could not tell exactly how many Chinese workers are in the country.

Villanueva, who is leading a Senate probe on the influx of Chinese workers in the country, rattled off the names of high-rise residential towers around Manila and its suburbs that are now crammed with newly arrived Chinese workers, and added that an offer to lease 400 condo units to house 3,000 Chinese workers in Muntinlupa City had recently gone viral on Facebook.

Condominium residents have noticed that there are so many Chinese families living in their buildings and many have also noticed that Chinese are everywhere – in malls, restaurants, and other public places.

Villanueva wanted to know if Chinese nationals were taking away jobs from Filipinos, some 3.8 million of whom were unemployed as of July 2018, according to estimates from the National Economic Development Authority.

“We strongly believe there is a dire need to strengthen legislation and enforcement to stop illegal online gambling and proliferation of illegal Chinese workers that shamelessly robbed our own people of jobs,” Villanueva said.

And yet when asked about the influx of illegal Chinese workers, President Duterte – a self-described friend of China – instead of just categorically saying that he would order their immediate arrest and deportation cautioned authorities against such crackdown because there are several Filipinos getting lenient treatment abroad. He said thousands of Filipinos are working legally and illegally in China.

If this is so, why not just bring back the Filipinos working illegally in China to fill up the jobs that the Chinese now occupies in the Philippines – most of them illegally anyway.

Chinese businessmen are taking advantage of the administration’s cozying up with the Chinese government. Chinese contractors have been heading to the Philippines to get a piece of the country’s infrastructure boom under Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” program that he hopes would be funded by loans and grants from China.

The Chinese are also coming to take advantage of Manila’s booming casino industry, including online gaming. These contractors and gambling operators come with their own managers and workers, and thus, does not really contribute much to the country’s employment numbers. In 2016, Duterte’s first year in office, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCor) gave permits to operate to more than 50 offshore gaming firms.

The Senate hearings should not just focus on the rising number of Chinese workers in terms of its effects on employment but should also consider its effect on the country’s national security. These workers are mostly posted in Metro Manila and in the various economic zones, which by any measure are strategic points in terms of national security.

The Chinese are also poised to enter in a big way the country’s telecommunications industry and the installation of closed circuit TVs in various local government units throughout the country, two vital sectors that could affect national security.

China has continued its aggressive stance in the South China Sea and national leaders should always be concerned about national security issues vis-à-vis its relations with China.

(valabelgas@aol.com)