The Philippine government may ask the United States government to reconsider its imposition of a one-year ban on Filipino workers if it finds no basis for such restriction, Malacanang said yesterday.
In a news conference, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said the government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), would check first if the US government has basis to ban the entry of additional Filipino workers for overstaying and human rights trafficking concerns.
“What we can do is first we need to know whether there is basis for the decision. If we can see there’s none, then we will ask for a reconsideration,” Panelo told reporters.
But he said the government would have to respect the latest regulation limiting foreign workers in the US if its rules were indeed violated.
Panelo recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte previously mentioned that he does not meddle with laws of other countries.
“The president if I remember correctly when we were with (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping), he said ‘Whatever your laws are, we will never intrude into that. In the same way that whatever laws we have, we will enforce them,’” he said.
“So if that is the law in the US and if there were violations, then we have to respect it. They have basis for that. We will only react if our workers are being mistreated, maltreated or are being discriminated against. But if they violated the laws of the US, then they have to face the music,” Panelo added.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly announced that Filipino workers would no longer be allowed to seek employment in the US.
Covered by the one-year ban are workers applying for the H-2A visa, which involves temporary agricultural services or labour, and H-2B visas or those for non-agricultural services.
“The Philippines has a high H-2B overstay rate. In FY 2017, DHS estimated that nearly 40% of H-2B visa holders from the Philippines overstayed their period of authorised stay,” the DHS notice read.
Panelo said the government would “make a move officially” as soon as it gets the report from the DFA and the country’s ambassador to the US.
“Anything that will affect our countrymen will always be a concern of the president,” the Palace official added.
“That’s why with more reason (the Philippines’ ambassador to the US) will give us a report. We haven’t received anything yet as far as I know. As soon as we receive a report, then we will make a move officially,” he said.
On the concerns about the high volume of trafficking victims from the Philippines, Panelo surmised that the US government must have conducted an investigation on the matter.
“When you say human trafficking, the US government must have conducted investigation on that. If their investigation yields that there was a violation, I don’t think we can meddle there,” he said.
“What we can do is to do our own controls here (on the trafficking that happens here),” Panelo added.
Meanwhile, he allayed concerns of Filipino workers who might be affected by the US restriction, saying they could still find jobs elsewhere.
“There are many countries. America is not the only place where our countrymen can go,” he said.
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