{"id":213043,"date":"2019-05-06T21:49:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T01:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=213043"},"modified":"2019-05-06T21:49:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T01:49:47","slug":"malacanang-wants-probe-on-chinese-only-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/06\/malacanang-wants-probe-on-chinese-only-restaurants\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaca\u00f1ang wants probe on \u2018Chinese-only\u2019 restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this reaction after Senator Panfilo Lacson called for a shutdown of these Chinese-only establishments which reject Filipino customers. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday said it will ask the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to conduct a probe on restaurants and other businesses which exclusively cater to Chinese nationals staying in the country.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this reaction after Senator Panfilo Lacson called for a shutdown of these Chinese-only establishments which reject Filipino customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to investigate first the truth of the report. We will ask (Labor) Secretary (Silvestre) Bello to conduct an investigation on the same,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Lacson also asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to keep investors from China out of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) saying that Filipinos should be prioritized.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the DTI will also address concerns on Chinese investors taking over SMEs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will address that concern to the Secretary of the Department of Trade, to Secretary Mon Lopez,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Senators Joel Villanueva and Aquilino \u2018Koko\u2019 Pimentel III also questioned the existence of the Chinese-only restaurants.<\/p>\n

Panelo emphasized that government will not allow this discrimination to happen since businesses should cater to all nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to investigate that if that is true. We cannot allow that to happen. They cannot be discriminating against Filipinos; it\u2019s a public business and therefore it should cater to all,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The Presidential Spokesperson, meanwhile, urged the public to file a complaint against business owners who insisted on entertaining only Chinese nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter step or thing to do is to file a complaint. If you try to engage the owner or try to force yourself, you will only trigger a fight,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He said local government units (LGUs) should also do their job and act on these complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a complaint and they validate that it has violated the law then LGUs should do their job,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Filipino netizens hit a restaurant in Alabang, Muntinlupa City called \u201cChina Food City\u201d that prevented Filipinos from entering, claiming it served only Chinese workers working in online gaming companies.<\/p>\n

Reports also showed an increase in the number of Chinese restaurants operating along Boracay Island which had menus written only in Chinese characters and personnel who were Chinese.<\/p>\n

Amid criticism on the influx of Chinese workers in the country, Panelo assured that the government will apply immigration laws against foreigners who work in the country without permits.<\/p>\n

Panelo said immigration laws will be applied with \u201cfull force\u201d and that violators \u201cwill be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday said it will ask the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to conduct a probe on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":187138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213043","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=213043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213062,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213043\/revisions\/213062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}