Bayan-Negros: We don't need Chinese workers in the country

THE Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros (Bayan)-Negros is strongly opposing Chinese citizens to stay as workers in the country.

Bayan-Negros secretary general Michael dela Concepcion, in a statement on Thursday, February 28, said the country does not need Chinese workers as Filipinos are capable of doing the same workloads being given to foreigners.

The group has criticized Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III amid his recent pronouncement on the entry of Chinese workers in the country.

Bello had said that Chinese nationals who hold work permits in the country are only filling up vacancies that Filipinos cannot or would not do.

“We are a developing country, there is no reason for us to give way for the entry of foreign workers,” Dela Concepcion said.

The Bayan-Negros leader clarified that he is not against foreign workers, but he pointed out that “it is the right of the Filipino people to be given jobs that is supposed to be for them only.

Earlier, Senator Francis Pangilinan said officials from the Department of Labor and Employment and Bureau of Immigration who allowed the entry of illegal Chinese workers in the country should be dismissed from the service.

The government, meanwhile, maintained that it will enforce immigration laws against illegal Chinese workers in the country.

Earlier this week, Negros Occidental-based General Alliance of Workers Association (Gawa) also slammed the earlier pronouncement of President Rodrigo Duterte allowing illegal Chinese workers to stay and work in the country.

For Gawa, it is as an insult to the dignity of Filipino workers.

“Our right to work was stolen from us and the government is looking the other way despite the apparent illegal violations,” its secretary general Wennie Sancho said, adding that “this is an unfair labor practice as far as we are concerned.”

The Labor Department noted that some 51,000 of 115,652 alien employment permits have been granted to Chinese nationals from 2015 to 2017.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Duterte government would “cautiously” deal with Chinese migrants “perceived or alleged to be staying illegally, given the situation of thousands of Filipinos staying in China not in accordance with its laws.”

He added that the current administration would act in accordance with the 1987 Constitution, but stressed that enforcement of immigration laws does not mean the government would respond “recklessly” on supposed violations of Chinese workers in the country. (TDE)

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