Employment visa creates thousands of jobs

THE easing of visa restrictions has seen an employment bonanza as a total of 33,000 new jobs for Filipinos where created last year after more than 400 foreign businessmen and their dependents from 34 countries were given indefinite visas by the government.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, Bureau of Immigration Legal Officer Cris Villalobos disclosed that the government also collected fees of more than P5 million from the foreigners who availed of the newly introduced special visa for employment generation (SVEG).

Villalobos, who heads the BI-SVEG one-stop-shop, said that of the 425 foreigners who were issued the indefinite visas, 271 were principal applicants and 144 were dependents.

The foreigners have investments, and in some cases, are expatriates employed by 185 businesses operating throughout the country.

Most of the SVEG holders are based in Metro Manila where 107 aliens availed themselves of the visa, followed by Cebu and Region VII where 35 applied.

The visa entitles the foreign holder to stay indefinitely in the country for as long as his or her investment subsists.

Villalobos also reported that 120 Koreans topped the list of the SVEG recipients, followed by 41 Chinese, 17 Taiwanese, 16 Americans, 11 Britons, 10 Australians, nine Japanese, nine Indians, seven Malaysians, and six Singaporeans.

By region, SVEG gave a total of almost 20,000 jobs in Metro Manila; 6,862 Filipinos were employed in Region IV; approved applicants in Region VII gave a total of 1,806 jobs; and Central Luzon, which houses the Clark Economic Zone and the Subic Bay Economic Zone, netted a total of 1,519 jobs.

Under the rules, the SVEG is issued to a foreigner with an interest in a company or entity that employs at least 10 full-time and regular Filipinos workers either for managerial, executive, professional, technical, skilled, or unskilled positions.

A foreigner applying for the visa is required to show that he or she maintains a lawful immigration status in the Philippines; is engaged in a viable and sustainable business; exercises managerial acts with authority to employ, promote and dismiss employees; and evinces a genuine intention to indefinitely remain in the country.

The SVEG was launched pursuant to an executive order that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had signed in November 2008 to attract foreign investors to the country and at the same time generate job opportunities for Filipinos.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera has disclosed that, despite reports to the contrary, she fully supports the passage of a new Philippine immigration act that will further boost investment opportunities in the Philippines.

In a press statement, Devanadera stressed that it was she who recommended to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to certify as urgent House Bill 6568 and Senate Bill 3404, or, the Philippine Immigration Act of 2009, now pending in Congress.

The President in December certified both bills as urgent in separate letters to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles.

Devandera clarified that news reports about her opposition to the bill was based on the position paper that the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), which she then headed, submitted to Congress in February 2009.

She said the OSG opposed a provision in the bill on the deactivation of the special committee on naturalization (SCN) and transferring its powers to the proposed new immigration agency.

Devanadera pointed out that with the subsequent deletion of the said provision in the current version of the bill, the OSG’s opposition had become moot and academic.

She pointed out that reforms initiated by Commissioner Libanan at the BI cannot be sustained if present immigration laws are inadequate and obsolete.

The proposed immigration act has been passed on third reading in the House and on second reading in the Senate. The bills seek to replace the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, which pundits have described as too antiquated and no longer attuned to the times.

According to the bill’s authors, the measure aims to make the immigration agency evolve into an agency that is more responsive to present realities and protect the people from the entry of undesirable foreign elements.

Lawyer Norman Tansingco, BI chief of staff, said the present bill would benefit the country in terms of tourism and investment development. “The bill, when enacted, will usher in the influx of more foreign visitors and investors in the country,” he added.

The new bill provides for the institutionalization of policies and procedures that would make it easier for foreigners to visit or do business in the country, thus leading to increased capital influx and generation of more job opportunities. –RANDOM JOTTINGS, Manila Times

rjottings@yahoo.com