Chinese citizens illegally work in the Philippine Casinos

The Philippine authorities are concerned about the problem of the illegal work of Chinese citizens in the gambling industry of the country.

On Tuesday, November 27, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced the arrest of 15 Chinese citizens suspected of involvement in the organization of two illegal online casinos in Pampang and Manila. All 15 people were in the country on tourist visas.

A spokeswoman for the Immigration Bureau, Dana Sandoval, said that the number of Chinese workers in the country has increased compared with 2017 and about 22,600 Chinese citizens have local work visas. Sandoval urged citizens to immediately contact the bureau when they discover cases of illegal work by citizens in the Philippines.

The operation, which was carried out by law enforcement agencies in Pasig last week, led to the arrest of 93 Chinese citizens suspected of organizing illegal online gambling. A few days earlier, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced the creation of a new inter-agency task force to prevent the illegal work of foreign citizens in the field of ground and online games.

Last week, Filipino Senator Joel Villanueva announced that the Labor Committee, headed by him, would begin an investigation of the true extent of the local gambling industry’s participation in the import of foreign labor. He promised to strengthen legislation and law enforcement so that local workers wont be affected in terms of workplace because of Chinese migrant workers.

However, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that Filipino workers also work in China. In his opinion, harshen measures against Chinese citizens can adversely affect the working conditions of Filipinos in China. Duterte urged senators to take this into account when developing an approach to address the current situation.

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