The Philippines’ Special Envoy to China Ramon Tulfo is all-praises for Chinese workers in the Philippines, even describing them as more hardworking in a recent television interview.
He was gushing about them in an episode of CNN Philippines’ On the Record yesterday, which tackled the influx of Chinese workers in the country.
“You know why developers prefer Chinese workers? Hardworking. Filipino workers aren’t respectful anymore. When they go to a job site, that’s the only time they prepare their tools, whereas the Chinese are already prepared … [Filipinos] also keep on smoking and talking,” he said in Filipino about construction workers.
He also said Chinese workers are more efficient than Filipinos.
“What takes Chinese workers eight months to finish a certain project, it takes Filipinos a year,” he said.
Tulfo, a staunch supporter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, said this amid concerns about the increase of foreign workers in the Philippines, many of them coming from China.
The influx of foreign workers
In a Senate inquiry on the issue in November, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said that many Chinese nationals receive tourist visas when they arrive in the country, which is valid for 29 days but can extend to 6 months.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad also said that many of these Chinese nationals arrive as tourists then convert their visas to work visas or secure work permits.
This may soon end, however, as the DOLE announced yesterday that foreign nationals will now need to obtain working visas from their country of origin before arriving in the Philippines.
DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in another Senate hearing late last month that about half of the more than 169,000 Alien Employment Permits issued by their department from 2015 – 2018 were given to Chinese nationals,
The Bureau of Immigration also has the ability to issue special working permits for those who will be staying in the Philipines for less than 6 months. During the February Senate inquiry, Senator Joel Villanueva said that 185,000 special working permits were issued in the last 11 months.
Many of these Chinese workers are hired by offshore gaming firms for their Mandarin language skills. Many also work in construction sites.
Villanueva also underlined the constitution’s mandate to give preference to Filipino workers.
“We have no problem with the entry of foreign workers to the country. Let’s just make sure that the process is correct, he said.”
Like Tulfo, Duterte is totally fine with Chinese nationals coming to work here.
“The Chinese here, just let them work here,” he said in Filipino in a speech late last month, just a few days after the Senate inquiry on the issue.
He also said that he can’t make them leave because Filipinos working in China might get deported.
“Why? We have 300,000 Filipinos in China. That’s why I can’t say ‘get out of here,’ they might be deported. What if they suddenly make the 300 [thousand] leave?” he said.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo reiterated this in another speech but the Chinese embassy said that they would not do such a thing.
Closer ties
The Philippine government has been establishing closer ties with China ever since Duterte became president. He said early on in his term that he was realigning with the Asian superpower.
This has come in the form of funding for various infrastructure projects under the administration’s “Build Build Build” program.
However, many fear that these loans could prove to be worse for the Philippines. Non-profit organization IBON spoke out against the government’s deals with China in November, warning against its “debt-book diplomacy.”
“[T]he terms of reference of the investment deals will drive the country to renewed debt bondage and subservience,” IBON Executive Editor Rosario Bella Guzman wrote in an article.
According to Guzman, official development assistance (ODA) given by China are actually more like commercial loans because it charges a 2-3% interest.
But this does not bother Tulfo who said in the CNN Philippines interview that the country’s warming relations with China are a good thing.
“We have everything to gain, there are big investments coming in,” he said.
