DAANBANTAYAN Mayor Sun Shimura urged dive resort and dive shop owners in Malapascua Island who employ foreigners to follow government labor policies.
Shimura issued a memorandum stating the order to nearly 50 business establishments on the island through the Malapascua Business Association (MBA) during a meeting held before the Holy Week last April.
Under the Department of Labor and Employment’s (Dole) Order 221 Series of 2021, foreign nationals who work in the Philippines without an Alien Employment Permit (AEP) and their employers will be fined P10,000.
They will also be prohibited from acquiring an AEP for five years.
Because of this, Shimura ordered the business establishments in Malapascua to temporarily stop the hiring of foreign dive instructors who have no AEP from Dole.
“Continued conduct of the above cited prohibited acts including surreptitious defiance of this order shall be subject to the immediate revocation of your business permit,” a portion of Shimura’s memorandum reads.
Violators will face the risk of having their business permits canceled.
Shimura said some of the dive resort owners preferred to recruit foreigners due to the language barrier since most of their customers are Europeans.
But he said the Bantayanons can understand and speak the English language.
Shimura, who is also a diver, said the members of Malapascua Thresher Shark Divers (MTD) who are all local competent dive instructors and licensed master divers, have been in operation since 1999.
These local dive instructors are also gradually picking up the English language.
Shimura said he would organize a meeting with the MBA, Bureau of Immigration, and Dole in the next few weeks to discuss how to solve the issue. (PAC, TPT)