https://youtu.be/raHOjzyj010
(Eagle News) – The Department of Labor and Employment said it has started its own inquiry regarding foreign workers in the country, including Chinese nationals who had been noted to have arrived in droves in the country.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said that the department is currently checking the work permits of Chinese nationals working in the country, even as he rued that his department lacked the powers to punish violators.
“There is a concerted effort to locate them and at the same time find out if they did not have the necessary working permits and if they are working without any employment permit, then what the department can do is merely recommend through the Bureau of Immigration that they be deported and blacklist them,” he said.
Bello also clarified that they would only give working permits to foreign nationals if the job that they do could not be performed by Filipino workers.
“Yung mga workers na hindi dapat bigyan ng permit ay yung mga workers na ang gagawin nilang trabaho dito ay yung kaya ng Pilipino (The workers who should not be given permits are those with jobs which Filipinos can perform),” he told Eagle News Service.
“Very clear yan na (This is very clear). No Filipino will be deprived of work because of the entry of foreign workers. Hindi kami magbibigay ng mga alien employment permit sa mga worker kung ang trabahong gagawin nila ay kaya ng mga Pilipino (We will not give alien employment permits to [foreign] workers if the work that they do can be done by Filipinos), Bello said.
-DOLE has no power to punish violators, says Bello
But the labor chief admitted that the department lacked the “punitive powers” to go after illegal foreign workers, as well as against their employers.
He said future legislation can address this lack, and give powers for DOLE to punish not just the illegal foreign workers, but also the employers or companies which hire them.
“Kaya for future legislation siguro it would be good if Congress will consider granting yung punitive authority ng DOLE. Hindi lang yung parusahan ay yung (Those who should be punished are not only those) working without permit pero pati na yung nag-hire sa kanila (but also those who hired them) allowing them to work knowing that they have no permit,” Bello said.
Based on the data from the labor department, it had already filed cases of deportation against an estimated 164,000.
Currently, there are some 90,000 foreign nationals working in the country.
(with a report from Erwin Temperante, Eagle News Service)
