JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday told senators the People’s Republic of China (PROC) has been uncooperative in government efforts to expedite the deportation of Chinese nationals who have been caught illegally working in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation (POGO) industry.
During the budget hearing on the proposed 2024 budget of the Department of Justice, Remulla said the deportation of Chinese workers have been delayed because Beijing’s response to Manila’s request for the issuance of the necessary travel documents of their nationals have been slow.
“May problema tayo minsan diyan sa People’s Republic of China. Ayaw po nila i-deport lahat kaagad. Ayaw nila bigyan ng dokumento, hindi nila minamadali. Ang priority lang nila, (iyong mga) pinapa-deport nila. Kaya meron ho tayo diyan na nagtatagal talaga na mahigit isang taon (kasi) ayaw tayo tulungan ng China sa bagay na ito. Nangyayari po lagi ito (We have a problem here because the People’s Republic of China has refused to deport them immediately. They do not want to immediately provide the documents. Their priority for deportation are those who they want to be deported. That’s why there are Chinese nationals who have remained in detention here because China does not want to help us. This has been happening for a while now),” Remulla said.
He also said: “When we catch them in the POGOs, they don’t have passports or do not want to surrender their documents. So, when we seek assistance from the PROC, they don’t rush to aid or provide us the documents. They take their sweet time to act on our request.”
This, he lamented, has hampered the Bureau of Immigration’s deportation proceedings.
The justice secretary also complained that there was even an instance when Beijing’s charge d’affaires, the second highest ranking official in the Chinese Embassy in Manila, talked to him in a “very offensive” manner.
“The words they use are sometimes not very, very accommodating. The last time, when I talked to the charge d’affaires, he was not respectful of our country, and I got a negative comment from the charge d’affaires. I found it very offensive how he spoke in that manner,” he said.
CHINA’S ‘PRIORITY’
Remulla said that instead of helping Manila facilitate the fast deportation of Chinese nationals illegally working in the POGO industry, their Chinese counterparts would instead give them a list of people that they want to be deported immediately.
Some of those in the list, he said, “are not yet arrested or captured.”
For those not included in the list, Remulla said the Chinese officials “are not cooperative immediately. They take their sweet time. They do not want to cooperate fully.”
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III slammed Beijing over Remulla’s disclosure. “How come it’s another country dictating who we should deport instead of those who violated our laws or are a burden to our society? Pimentel asked.
CHINESE WORKERS
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco told the Senate Committee on Finance that the Bureau of Immigration has yet to deport some 400 Chinese illegal POGO workers who were arrested in recent raids in Las Piñas City, Pasay City and Pampanga due to lack of travel documents.
“We still need to deport 400 of them. We are just waiting for the travel documents to be issued by the Chinese government,” he said.
He said that once deported, the names of the workers will be included in the immigration’s blacklist to prevent their re-entry to the country.
The DOJ and the BI started the crackdown on illegal POGO workers last year, with Remulla saying then that the BI had already canceled the visas of 1,424 Chinese nationals working in illegal POGO outlets.
The BI, at the time, was also set to cancel the working visas of 48,782 Chinese nationals working in illegal online gaming outlets.
The controversy generated by the presence of Chinese nationals working in illegal POGOs hogged the limelight last year after Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said he was told by Chinese Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian that Beijing has placed the Philippines in its “tourist blacklist” due to the continued operations of POGOs.
