60 ‘illegal’ Chinese workers found in Chico River project

By Dexter A. See, Manila Times 5 Jun 2019

TABUK CITY, Kalinga: The Cordillera office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE-CAR) has found about 60 Chinese working in the P4.37-billion Chico River Pump Irrigation Project without the required alien employment permits.

DoLE-CAR Regional Director Exequiel Ronnie Guzman said during a recent visit to the project site on the border of Kalinga and Cagayan provinces that labor inspectors found that the Chinese contractor does not possess the special license from the Office of the President authorizing it to implement the project, while the 60 Chinese workers did not have permits to work in the country.
Guzman added that while the Chinese contractor followed prevailing labor standards, it did not comply with occupational health and safety standards.

The DoLE-CAR required the contractor to present its own construction safety and health plan during a hearing set in Baguio City next week, so it will not be issued a work stoppage order.

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“We do not want to be accused of delaying the project, but we want to ensure that the contractor ensure the safety of the workplace since our latest inspection of the project site showed it to be hazardous,” Guzman said.

He added that if the contractor fails to present the alien employment permits of the 60 Chinese working in the project, they would transmit the matter to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) for the imposition of appropriate sanctions, which include possible deportation of the workers to China.

Guzman said even if the contractor presented the requirements for issuance of permits, not all the Chinese would be given permits, as this would still have to pass through stringent evaluation to ascertain who among them would be allowed to work in the project site.

He disclosed that the contractor was able to show a special contractor’s license, but it was for a sewerage project in Quezon City, not the ongoing pump irrigation project.

Guzman said the Chinese contractor attempted to secure permits in DoLE Region 2, but the request was referred to the DoLE-CAR by his counterparts because the project site is within their jurisdiction.

Earlier, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples ordered the temporary suspension of the project because of the absence of the required free prior informed consent, but the order was lifted after the commission en banc expressed satisfaction over the requisites that were presented by the regional office of the agency, and also because of the presence of the tribal leaders attesting to the importance of the project.