NEGROS Occidental-based labor group General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa) is strongly supporting the call of Senator Aquilino Pimentel to conduct massive crackdown on illegal Chinese workers in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (Pogo) industry, its top official said.
Gawa Secretary General Wennie Sancho, in a statement Thursday, January 29, claimed that most of these illegal Chinese workers are coming in as tourists but were able to get the working permits from the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) and Bureau of Immigration (BOI).
Citing the statement of House Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr., Sancho said there are about 100 illegal Pogo establishments operating in the country.
“Due to the proliferation of Pogos, there have been alarming incidents of kidnappings of Chinese by Chinese, prostitution of Chinese women by Chinese syndicates including labor exploitation,” he said, adding that “these Chinese illegal workers had abused our hospitality.”
The labor group asserted that crimes involving moral turpitude had weaken the moral fiber of the society.
Gawa believes that it is high time that the government should re-evaluate its policies on regulating gambling in the Pogo industry.
The social cost of gambling and prostitution is more devastating compared to the revenue raised from offshore gaming operations, its said.
For Sancho, the Dole and BOI should be made to answer as to how these Chinese tourists got their working permits.
He pointed out that a crackdown has to be done now. If not, then the government is looking the other way while the labor and criminal laws are being violated with impunity by these Chinese, right in the country’s own backyard.
“What a disgrace to the Filipino working class,” the labor leader lamented.