Duterte Faces Fresh Pressure Over Influx of Chinese Workers

Rodrigo Duterte remains almost unbelievably popular, but the Philippine president has always had a major Achilles’ heel – and it has recently come back to bite him.

Duterte’s approval rating recently shot above 90 percent, showing that Filipinos apparently don’t blame him for the country’s sputtering economy and its uneven response to the coronavirus pandemic. But even the president’s most ardent supporters resent his warmth toward the Chinese government and his eagerness to accommodate Chinese workers in the Philippines working on big-ticket infrastructure projects funded by Beijing.

In December 2019, a poll showed that 70 percent of Filipinos were “worried about the rising number of foreign Chinese workers in the Philippines,” with 52 percent saying the influx of Chinese workers was a “threat to the country’s overall security.”

This hasn’t stopped the Philippines from allegedly allowing Chinese workers to be prioritized in hiring for major government projects.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in October China should have “flexibility” in hiring its own personnel – meaning Chinese nationals – for two major bridge projects being built with donations from the Chinese government.

“We don’t pay back anything for the building of these bridges, and that’s why we need to give them some flexibility in the personnel that they would hire,” Roque told CNN Philippines, adding that the government would “insist” that Philippine labor be employed if the projects were paid for by taxpayers’ money.

Roque’s justification did not satisfy Filipinos and their congressional representatives for several reasons.

In a budget hearing in early October, senators asked the Department of Public Works and Highways to prioritize the hiring of Filipinos. Senator Kiko Pangilinan noted that 23.7 million Filipinos – 39.5 percent of the workforce – remain unemployed as of this month. Many were construction workers who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Given the huge unemployment rate we are facing because of COVID, is the employment of foreign workers a condition for the approval of these [foreign development projects]?” Pangilinan asked DPWH officials at the hearing.

Public works officials responded by saying the technical aspects of the job required foreigners to be employed. This explanation did not go far, however, as other senators insisted Filipinos have the skills to operate foreign equipment.

Industry insiders have estimated there are up to, if not more than, 250,000 Chinese nationals working in the Philippines, many of whom work in offshore online gambling companies. Many of them do not have legal work permits, and the Philippine government has reportedly taken a lax approach to penalizing Chinese nationals working without the proper documentation.

The Philippines under Duterte has made a remarkable pivot toward Beijing. It has declined to challenge China’s claims in Philippine areas of the South China Sea, known in Manila as the West Philippine Sea. This is despite a ruling by a 2016 international tribunal, made on a case filed by the previous Philippine administration, that China has no claim to Philippine waters within its “nine-dash line.”

Duterte and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have also reached agreements on billions in infrastructure projects backed by China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Financial details of the Chinese loan agreements have often not been made public, raising worries that the Philippines could find itself swamped in debt it cannot pay and potentially have its assets seized by China.

The Philippines is not the only Southeast Asian country to have issues with Chinese workers – although its history with those of Chinese ancestry, who make up as much as 25 percent of the population, is far less fraught than that of countries such as Indonesia.

Indonesian labor unions protested in July over the import of hundreds of Chinese workers for special nickel and stainless steel jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic – part of a rise in Chinese nationals working in Indonesia on projects funded by the Belt and Road Initiative. Despite the backlash, Chinese workers have continued to arrive in Indonesia.

The Philippines has not seen widespread ethnic violence on the level of Indonesia’s 1998 riots. Filipinos are used to distinguishing between Chinese-born nationals and Tsinoys, or those of mixed Filipino and Chinese ancestry.

Regardless, the import of Chinese workers – especially during a public health and unemployment crisis – is one of the few issues on which Duterte and his supporters passionately disagree.