Labor issues 22,917 permits for guest workers
Tuesday, 03 February 2009 00:00 By Junhan B. Todeno - Variety News Staff
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THE Department of Labor issued 22,917 permits in 2008 for guest workers.

Labor issued a total 29,700 permits for nonresident in different categories, and of this number 18,500 were Filipinos, according to a report submitted by the department to the Legislature.

Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas said the department counts only its administrative operations and does not conduct any census of foreign workers actually present in the commonwealth.

He said “the number of permits issued is greater than the number of workers present in the commonwealth at any given point in a typical year because some permit actions are contract amendments or extensions and affect a single worker.”

He added that some permit holders choose to leave the commonwealth during the year for personal or employment reasons.

Some employers implement reductions in force and cancel their “issued” permits for some of their workers, while some employers close their businesses entirely and their issued permits are then cancelled by the department.

According to Labor’s report, there are 37 additional foreign workers who do not have permits but who hold temporary working authorization, and about 70 foreign workers who do not hold permits but hold memoranda authorizing them to seek work while their labor cases are pending.

The total number of guest permits given to workers from the Philippines was 15,602; China had 4,567; Korea, 729; Thailand, 574; Japan, 537; Bangladesh, 333; and others not specified by Labor, 575.

The Philippines also topped the list of permits issued to non-alien immediate relatives — 1,401.

China had 338; Bangladesh, 309; Thailand, 126; Japan, 92; Korea, 64; and other nationalities, 79.

Korea had the most number of permits for alien immediate relative with 438; followed by the Philippines, 385; Japan, 76; China, 61; Bangladesh, 6; Thailand, 1; and other nationalities, 39.

Korea also topped the list of permits for tourist-long term category with 606 in total.

The Philippines had 522; China, 160; Japan, 62; Thailand, 5; and others, 69.

Korea received 162 foreign student permits; China, 159; the Philippines, 133; Japan, 18; Thailand, 2; Bangladesh 1; and others, 16.

There were 167 government contract worker permits issued to those from the Philippines; 2, China; 1, Japan; and others, 23.

Eighty-four missionary permits were issued to Koreans; 57 to Filipinos; five to Chinese; one to a Bangladeshi; and 10 to those from other countries.

Labor said it issued 90-day business permits to 18 Japanese; 10 Chinese; 10 Filipinos; 8 Koreans; and 1 Thai.

Of the 180 business permits issued last year, 52 were given to those from the Philippines; 21, Japan; 6, China; 2, Korea; and four to other nationalities.

There were 129 long-term business permit issued to Korean businessmen; 49 to Japanese; 42 to Chinese; 17 to Filipinos; one to a Thai; and 17 to those from other countries.

For long-term business IR permits, Labor issued 122 to Koreans; 20 to Filipinos; 27 to Chinese; 18 to Japanese; and two to people from other nationalities.