{"id":211434,"date":"2019-04-26T00:59:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T04:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=211434"},"modified":"2019-04-26T00:59:31","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T04:59:31","slug":"ph-to-address-illegal-chinese-workers-entry-envoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/26\/ph-to-address-illegal-chinese-workers-entry-envoy\/","title":{"rendered":"PH to address illegal Chinese workers’ entry: envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Ambassador Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana during his welcome remarks at the 120th Philippine Independence Day (Photo: eijing, China Embassy of the Philippines\/Website<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana said concerned Philippine agencies are currently working to address the issue of illegal Chinese workers in the country.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, Sta. Romana said he has met with Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to discuss the problem.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“So, there is a problem that has to be solved. I just had a discussion with Secretary Bello. I just came from that meeting and he said we have to do something,” the envoy said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“If it\u2019s illegal, you have to crack down on what\u2019s illegal. If there are loopholes, you have to plug the loopholes,” he added.<\/p>\n

Sta. Romana said the Philippine government is encouraging foreigners to come to the country as tourists.<\/p>\n

“We are encouraging tourism right now, so we issue tourist visas here. But they are stamped not for employment,” he said.<\/p>\n

While the government encourages more Chinese tourists to visit the Philippines, Sta. Romana said a monitoring system should be established.<\/p>\n

The Chinese market remains the fastest-growing population of tourists in the country, reaching almost one million visitors in 2018.<\/p>\n

This may be attributed to the relaxed visa policy for Chinese citizens.<\/p>\n

“Secretary Bello was explaining that they have to basically monitor those who are getting work permits. It has to do with the issue of work permits,” he said.<\/p>\n

Sta. Romana said concerned government agencies continue to work towards strengthening policies and mechanisms to identify those posing as tourists but end up working with permits in the country.<\/p>\n

“This is something we\u2019re trying to work out. Without sacrificing the progress, we want to achieve in tourism, it\u2019s how to avoid illegal or extended presence,” he noted.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana said concerned Philippine agencies are currently working to address the issue …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":211437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211438,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211434\/revisions\/211438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}