SWS: 70% of Filipinos ‘worried’ about rise in number of Chinese workers in PH

By CNN Philippines Staff, 5 Dec 2019

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 5) — At least 70 percent of Filipinos expressed concern over the rise of Chinese workers in the country, with some even believing it may be a threat to national security, a survey said.

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) on Thursday said 70 percent of Filipinos are “worried” over the increasing presence of Chinese nationals in the work place.

SWS noted that 31 percent of the respondents said they were “worried a great deal” while 39 percent were only “somewhat worried.”

Meanwhile, 19 percent said they were not too worried, and 11 percent shared that they are not at all worried.

About 12 percent of the survey respondents noticed there were “very many” Chinese workers in their locality while 19 percent said there were “somewhat many” in their area. However, 25 percent said they observed only a few Chinese workers, while 44 percent said there were none at all where they are from.

Asked if they believe that the increasing number of Chinese workers may be a security threat to the country, 27 percent strongly agreed and 25 percent somewhat agreed. On the other hand, some 14 percent somewhat disagreed and 13 percent strongly disagreed. The remaining 13 percent were undecided. Most of the Filipinos who believe it is a threat were from Metro Manila.

The survey was done on September 27 to 30 through face-to-face interviews with 1,800 adults. It has sampling error margins of ±2.3% for national percentages, ±4% each for Balance Luzon and Mindanao, and ±6% each for Metro Manila and the Visayas.

Government officials in July said they were concerned over the influx of Chinese workers in the Philippines. Data showed more than three million Chinese nationals have entered the country since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in 2016 and fostered friendly ties with Beijing. However, hundreds of them have been arrested and deported for not having the proper documents. Just for this year, the Bureau of Immigration has already arrested 1,400 improperly documented foreign workers, many of them Chinese.