Eleven senatorial candidates agreed that illegal Chinese workers should not be recklessly deported to their home country but want the government to strictly enforce the law on aliens in the country.
In the third ABS-CBN-Manila Bulletin Senatorial Town Hall Debates yesterday, Tourism sophomore Arvin Carlos from the Far Eastern University asked the candidates what is their stand about the growing number of illegal Chinese workers in the county.
Most senatorial bets agreed that these illegal Chinese workers should not be deported recklessly for fear on the fate of Filipino workers in China.
According to Shariff Albani, people should consider the long-standing ties between the Philippines and China. He wants to check the policies that allow the entry of foreign workers before making any action.
Fellow senatorial candidate 41-year-old teacher Jesus Caceres shared the same view, saying it will help improve the country.
Gerald Arcega, on the other hand, is pushing a more harsher measure. Citing the problems of unemployment, Arcega said there should be a law that bans illegal foreign workers in the country. “Pinoy dapat ang employer dito, Hindi Tsino,” he said.
Marcelino Arias also agreed that the rule of law should be observed but disagreed with the stand of President Duterte that Filipinos should just let illegal Chinese workers work in the country. He agreed that it is only fair that China does the same to illegal Filipino workers in their country.
Jonathan Baldevarona said that he wants to make concerned agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment and the Bureau of Immigration accountable if they fail to implement the law on employment and entry of aliens in the country. He agreed that Chinese workers with deportable violations should be deported to their home country.
Radio commentator Melchor Chavez said that only those with legitimate contracts should be allowed to stay in the country because Filipino workers are put in a disadvantage.
Charlie Gaddi said that the government should regulate the entry of Chinese workers in the country because Filipino workers are losing the opportunity to land jobs because of them.
Businesswoman Emily Mallillin believes that the Chinese are the main source of illegal drugs in the country but said that those who follow Philippine laws should be allowed to stay.
Former news boy and lawyer Sonny Matula said that Filipino workers should be protected and that the Chinese nationals who entered the country illegally should be deported. He also wants to penalize recruiters and those who hire illegal Chinese workers.
Luther Meniano first wants to take a look at DoLE implementing rules and regulations and see how many foreign workers are allowed in the country or how many are allowed in a workplace or project.
Lawyer Allan Montaño said foreign workers should only be hired if it is allowed by the DoLE. He also wants to investigate how these workers entered the country, adding that if there are no Filipinos who are willing and able to do a job, Chinese workers should be allowed to stay.
Last month, Duterte told the public to just let Chinese people work in the country as he cannot just deport them due to the number of Filipinos also working in China.
Most of the senatorial bets in the debate believe that the government should acquire more trains to finally solve the lingering problem in the operations of the Metro Rail Transit.
In order to do this, they said President Duterte should finally be granted emergency powers to promptly acquire additional trains for the MRT to ease the burden of commuters.
A data analyst from Mandaluyong City, Giselle Tolosa, who travels to work through the MRT and was among the passengers who experienced an ugly glitch while inside an MRT trains in the past, asked the 11 senatorial candidates what would they do when elected to prevent yet another glitch on the MRT.
“Nagkaroon na ng incident kung saan kinailangan naming bumaba sa istasyon dahil nagkaroon ng breakdown ang MRT. Sa ikalawang insidente, nagkaroon ng water leakage sa ceiling ng MRT kung saan kaming mga pasahero ay gumamit ng payong para hindi kami mabasa,” Tolosa narrated.
Matula proposed that a nationalized minimum wage should be implemented so that workers will not be left with an only option to work in the main cities, Matula said.
“Dapat ma-nationalize minimum wage para hindi ma-magnet ang Metro Manila na dito maraming manggagawa,” Matula said.
Caceres said that in order to solve the transportation and traffic issues in the country, law enforcement should be strengthened.
Baldevarona and Arias said that the solution to the problems is additional infrastructure projects. Arias suggested the construction of a Skyway on EDSA to decongest traffic. (Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos and Betheena Kae Unite)