Korea extends amnesty to overstaying Filipinos

SEOUL—The South Korean government is amnestying undocumented Filipino workers here after President Arroyo appealed to President Lee Myung-Bak on their behalf at the weekend.

Lee granted Mrs. Arroyo’s request at the sidelines of the signing of a bilateral agreement renewing the Employment Permit System at the Blue House.

He granted her request even as Mrs. Arroyo secured more than $1.22 billion in investment and official development assistance from Korea for the Philippines’ agriculture, tourism and energy sectors.

“The EPS will provide the legal pathway for Filipinos to work in South Korea,” Mrs. Arroyo told members of the Filipino community at the Lotte Hotel before she left for Jeju Island.

“This will especially benefit undocumented [Filipino workers], because I heard there are still a lot of undocumented Filipinos here in Korea.”

Mrs. Arroyo said about 60,000 Filipinos were in Korea legally, but Foreign Affairs has estimated the number of undocumented Filipinos here at 30,000.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said he would meet his Korean counterpart, Minister Lee Young-Hee, on Tuesday to firm up the details of the amnesty.

“They have committed to give us preferential treatment, but we still have to firm up the details,” he said.

“Undocumented [Filipinos] must go home to the Philippines first and then come back to Korea as documented workers. They [have] to go home to the Philippines and have their proper documents fixed.”

Mrs. Arroyo told Filipino workers here that their government was doing everything to protect their jobs and create employment opportunities for those who would be displaced by the worldwide economic slowdown.

“We have a program of full reciprocity for our workers,” she said.

“We have earmarked P1 billion under the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to provide livelihood support for displaced [Filipinos] who want to start their own businesses in the Philippines and retraining for those who want to look for new jobs abroad.”

Mrs. Arroyo and Lee witnessed the signing of six agreements including a $12.97-million grant to create four modern rice processing facilities in the Philippines, a $50-million investment in wind power projects in Luzon, and a $150-million commitment from the Export Import Bank of Korea to finance other alternative energy projects.

She met representatives of the Korean firms Eco Solution Co. and EnviroPlasma, which are to invest $475 million in alternative fuel projects in the Philippines. She witnessed the signing of a $6.52-million investment to build roads to connect Donggwang Clark Corp. and Clark Development Corp.

CDC president Benigno Ricafort signed a deal allowing Donggwang to build two hotels and a golf course in Clark worth $515 million.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the Korea International Cooperation Agency had also committed $14.9 million to expand the Molinao Dam in Bohol to irrigate 5,000 hectares instead of 3,500.

Eco Solution, with its affiliate Eco Global Bio-Oils Inc., would invest $175 million in a jatropha plant in South Cotabato to produce 100,000 liters of bio-diesel daily, he said.

EnviroPlasma would invest $300 million in a plant in Clark, Pampanga, to produce 500,000 liters of sugar bio-ethanol daily. –Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today