PHILIPPINES: Philippines Government Okays Construction Of New Manila Airport

The Philippines on Wednesday approved a plan to build a new airport near Manila, in a bid to ease congestion with the capital's existing airport operating at full capacity.

Philippine conglomerate San Miguel will build the airport in Bulakan town, north of Manila Bay, that will feature four parallel runways and serve 100-200 million passengers a year, a government statement said.

This new international airport is important in helping ease the congestion of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (in Manila), Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in the statement.

San Miguel, which was the only company to bid for the project, will have to break ground on the $14 billion project before the end of the year and open for business no later than 2025, the statement said.

The company has said it plans to run the airport which would be the biggest infrastructure project under President Rodrigo Duterte's government, after obtaining a government concession.

The existing Manila airport, which has two runways, handled nearly 260,000 flights and served 45 million passengers last year, according to its website.

The announcement came after the close of trade in Manila. Shares in San Miguel rose 1.19 percent to end at 178.00 pesos ($3.50).


Tourism Observer

PHILIPPINES: Boracay Reopens, But Boozing At The Beach Banned

Say goodbye to beach parties and water sports when the white-sand resort of Boracay Island in the central Philippines reopens to tourists on Friday after a six-month shutdown.

Our guests can expect a better Boracay when it comes to maintaining a high environmental standard, Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said via Facebook messenger. Please manage your expectations, she added in a word of advice to tourists expecting the same Boracay.

Drinking and smoking in public places will be banned, along with the late-night parties that have made the island one of Asia's top tourism destinations.

Jet skis and other water sports will be banned until further notice, and sand castle making will be regulated, according to a Twitter advisory by Cebu Air Inc. Confirmed bookings with accredited hotels will be required before being allowed entry to the island.

The number of visitors will be capped at 6,405 arrivals per day while only 19,000 tourists will be allowed on the island at any given time, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said.

The Philippines opens the doors on Friday (Oct 26) to a spruced up and newly regulated Boracay, its famous holiday island that was shuttered to mend decades of harm caused by unchecked tourism.

The white sand idyll was closed to visitors in April after President Rodrigo Duterte called it a "cesspool" tainted by raw sewage flowing from hotels and restaurants straight into the sea.

But the re-christened resort has a slew of new rules that restrict boozing on the beach, limit the number of tourists and hotels, all while a renovation spree is ongoing.

Among the first visitors to land just after dawn on Friday were first-timers attracted by the prospect of a cleaner, less crowded island.

Once a quiet hideaway favoured by backpackers, the tiny island was transformed by overdevelopment into a mass destination seeing some two million visitors per year.

Even if there are many renovations and it's not yet perfect, when you go to the beach you realise that closing it for six months was worth it.

Under the new rules, the beachfront is cleared of the masseuses, vendors, bonfires and even the builders of its famous photo-op sandcastles it was once crowded with.

Buildings were bulldozed and businesses pushed back to create a 30m buffer zone from the waterline.

Construction is everywhere with road repairs, hotels and resort renovations happening around the island.

All water sports, save for swimming, are also banned for the time being, while Boracay's three casinos have been permanently shut down in line with Duterte's wishes.

Boracay, which major tourist magazines consistently rate as among the world's best beaches, measures a mere 1,000 hectares.

Yet, it was seeing up to 40,000 tourists at peak times, with tourists spending US$1 billion a year but also leaving mountains of garbage and an overflowing sewer system.

The new rules say 19,200 tourists will be allowed on the island at any one time, with the government aiming to enforce that by controlling the number of available hotel rooms.

Nearly 400 hotels and restaurants deemed to violate local environmental laws have already been ordered closed and airlines as well as ferries were told to restrict service to the area.

Drinking and smoking are banned on the beach and the huge multi-day beach parties dubbed LaBoracay that drew tens of thousands of tourists during the May 1 Labour Day weekend will be a thing of the past.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said last week she hopes the new Boracay will be the start of a "culture of sustainable tourism" in the Philippines, adding other tourist destinations will be next.

The Boracay Foundation, the main business industry group on the island, has not commented on the restrictions but welcomed the return of tourists.

Everyone, big and small, has sacrificed a lot during the six-month closure, its executive director Pia Miraflores said.

Tens of thousands of workers were left unemployed when the island's tourism machine was deprived of visitors.

Other places in the region strained by mass tourism have also used closures as a tactic to protect the sites from destruction.


Tourism Observer

PHILIPPINES: Cebu City Getting Set For An Influx Of Tourists After Closure Of Boracay Island

Considering the impending closure of Boracay Island, is Cebu City ready for the expected surge of tourists who will flock there as a result of the closure?

Mayor Tomas Osmena says Boracay’s closure for the next six months may not really have a big impact on the city.

The mayor, though, was quick to clarify that mitigating measures still must be prepared, or Cebu might suffer the same fate as that of Boracay’s.

He says he doesn't think it will have a big impact. Maybe in Mactan, yes. But you know, we might have to put the limits to our rooms.

We’ll become another Boracay, he says.

Boracay gained popularity locally and internationally because of its powdery white sand and turquoise water.

But the influx of tourists visiting the island and the failure to enforce environmental laws, like requiring proper sewage systems, have caused it to suffer several environmental problems.

Last April 4, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the recommendation of the inter-agency task force on Boracay to close the famous beach destination for six months starting on April 26.

The recommendation was made by the task force composed of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Tourism, and the Department of Interior and Local Government.

The temporary closure is seen by the National Government as a short-term solution to address the environmental woes hounding Boracay.

Prior to the approved temporary closure, Duterte ordered a total clean-up of Boracay Island last February.

The President had threatened to arrest and file appropriate charges against local officials responsible for resort owners’ supposed defiance of environmental rules and regulations.

He had also sought to place Boracay under a state of calamity to extend assistance to those who will be affected by the closure.

The movement of tourists to other beach destinations, including Cebu, is expected while Boracay keeps away tourists for half the year.

Boracay and Cebu were the top destinations in 2017 for South Koreans, the biggest group of foreign tourists in the country.

Of the 6.62 million who visited the country last year, Koreans represented 24 percent at 1.6 million arrivals.

To ensure that Boracay’s environmental problems won’t happen in Cebu, Mayor Osmena said setting limitations to buildings and room occupancy might help.

That’s the truth of the matter. We have too many cars, too many people, and too many buildings.

That’s why I like this four-story limit on buildings, he said.

Osmena was referring to his earlier proposal to limit the maximum height available for developers to four stories. “

The problems we have today are associated with growth, but that’s better than no growth, he added.



Tourism Observer

PHILIPPINES: Thousands Loose Livelyhood As Duterte Closes Boracay To Tourists

Plans to temporarily shut down the beach resort, and turn locals jobless for at least six months, come after a Macau company presented the Philippine president with a US$500 million casino proposal.

Twelve years ago, a young Filipino holidaymaker fell so deeply in love with the white-sand island of Boracay that she decided to open a restaurant there to live the paradise dream.

As a result of the boom in tourist arrivals, especially the cash-rich Chinese, her business has been on such a right track that she now runs several restaurants with 50 staff on the island that is world famous for its crystalline beaches and nightlife.

But her paradise dream has slowly morphed into a nightmare since representatives of the Macau-based Galaxy Entertainment Group, including its founder Lui Che-woo, met Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte last December to wow him with their vision of a US$500 million integrated casino resort there.

Two months later, the firebrand leader visited the island and declared it was a cesspool that needs to be shut down to rehabilitate.

He finally approved a six-month closure on Wednesday, effective April 26, triggering an outcry from island residents that the Philippine government is sacrificing the local interests to keep Chinese investments and tourists coming.

With 36,000 workers that will be affected by a closure, of course people are going to feel that the government is not on their side, said the Filipino restaurateur, who declined to be named. If concern about the environment is the reason for closing Boracay, it does not make sense to put up a gargantuan casino.

We believe that such a casino will degrade the environment and character of the island itself. We do not need a casino to attract tourists to Boracay.

National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organisations chairman Fernando Hicap even accused the administration of allowing foreign companies to rake profits at the expense of our local businesses and patrimonial rights.

Shutting down small-time beach resorts in Boracay as entry points for foreign casinos is anti-Filipino, gross puppetry, and a total sell-out not only of our national patrimony but even our beautiful tourist destinations, He said.

Chinese tourists have been an integral source of the Philippines’ tourism industry. Total Chinese tourist arrivals to the Southeast Asian country reached 968,447 last year, a sharp increase of 43 per cent from 2016.

This year, the Philippines has set an ambitious goal to attract 2 million Chinese travellers.

For Boracay, 375,284 Chinese tourists visited last year, almost 30 times more than a decade ago. Chinese visitors outpaced South Koreans to the island last year.

Typically, Chinese tourists spend about 40,000 pesos or US$770 for a three-day trip to Boracay and the impact of the shutdown will be unimaginable, the Boracay Filipino-Chinese Tour Guides’ Association was quoted as saying by Philippine media.

Boracay generates about 56 billion pesos of revenue a year, a crucial sum to keep the Philippine economy growing. Gross domestic product increased 6.7 per cent last year.

The Filipino restaurateur said while Chinese tourists are a boost to Boracay, they often come through pre-packaged tours and are funnelled to hotels and restaurants run by Chinese bosses.

While there have been Chinese guests visiting restaurants, it has not been commensurate with the increased arrivals from China.

And she wishes Chinese tourists would behave better.

We have had cases where Chinese tourists behave badly, smoke inside restaurants and throw litter everywhere.

I have personally seen an elderly Chinese couple allow their grandchild pee in the middle of a busy shopping area. We wish this could be different,she said.

The boss also warned that the Boracay shutdown would trigger a ripple effect, affecting suppliers of food and other products, as well as the transport companies.

These businesses will not be able to continue to pay salaries of the workers. These workers are likely to leave the island. This, in turn, means that restarting Boracay will be difficult because all of the trained manpower will be gone.

It seems the government wants to eject everyone in Boracay so that no one will see what is being done there.

A Chinese man who runs a restaurant on the island was also irritated. There’s definitely pollution here. But Manila is polluted as well, why hasn’t the government shut down Manila yet?

If the island is closed for tourists, I might just sleep my time away here. I haven’t decided what to do with my staff.

Galaxy, listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange, is building its resort-casino on a 23-hectare plot of land. Construction is expected to begin next year and will take three years.

A Galaxy spokesman said it has been the company’s priority to support Boracay’s developments in a sustainable manner.

In keeping with our business philosophy, the resort development in Boracay will be designed to be in line with internationally recognised standards for environmental management, the spokesman said.

We will source local and natural materials as best we can and ensure that our resort design is low density, low impact and will aim to blend in with the existing beautiful landscape.

Asked if Galaxy supports the government’s plan to shut down Boracay, the spokesman said: We absolutely agree that Boracay should be maintained to a high quality and sustainable holiday destination.

As such, we will provide full support in helping Boracay regain and maintain its natural resources underlying our environmental values.

Galaxy secured the provisional licence from the Philippine government’s gaming regulator for its casino resort last month after Duterte imposed a ban on new casinos.

But the regulator said Galaxy submitted its gaming application before the ban.

Sharry Avaricio, manager of a pizza restaurant on the island, is ambivalent about the closure.

If you look at it at the environmental side, this is the best way to let the island rehabilitate. But for staff like us, we don’t have any options but to go, she said.



Tourism Observer

PHILIPPINES: Boracay Island To Close To Tourists Over Cesspool Sewage

Philippines government has announced its popular holiday island Boracay will be closed to tourists for six months over concerns that the once idyllic white-sand resort has become a cesspool tainted by dumped sewage.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the shutdown to start April 26, his spokesman Harry Roque said late Wednesday on Twitter, without providing further detail.

The decision jeopardises the livelihoods of thousands employed as part of a bustling tourist trade on the island that each year serves some two million guests and pumps roughly $1 billion revenue into the Philippine economy.

Experts said the measure also appeared to contradict the government's own pro-development policy for the island, including the recent approval of a planned $500 million casino and resort on Boracay.

The threat of closure first emerged in February when Duterte blasted the tiny island's some 500 tourism-related hotels, restaurants and other businesses, accusing them of dumping sewage directly into the sea and turning it into a cesspool.

Officials have warned the island's drainage system is being used to send the untreated sewage into its surrounding turquoise waters.

The environment ministry says 195 businesses, along with more than 4,000 residential customers, are not connected to sewer lines.

But within weeks of Duterte lashing out at the local businesses, the Philippines gave the green light for Macau casino giant Galaxy Entertainment to begin construction next year of the casino and resort complex.

The casino contradicts all the efforts now of cleaning up and making sure Boracay goes back to the state where it doesn't violate its carrying capacity.

He added that the area has seen plenty of development because local government units and the national government agencies did not do their job of enforcing rules on land use, environmental impact assessment.

The impact of Wednesday's decision was already being felt, with domestic airlines announcing they would scale back the number of flights to the 1,000-hectare (2,470-acre) island.

There will be no income and we have bills to pay so I don't know how I will survive says a hotelier.

Officials have said they are willing to take a hard line enforcing the closure.

Government says hutting down the tourist trade could involve having ferries suspend their Boracay services and making the beaches off-limits, and stationing police there if necessary.

An iron fist is needed to bring it back to its previous condition. It will be a temporary thing, Leones said.

The Boracay Foundation Inc., a business industry association on the island, had asked the government to shut down only those violating environmental laws.

It's unfair for compliant establishments to be affected by the closure.

Miraflores said that even before the ban was announced, its shadow had hit some businesses hard in Boracay.

Tour guides have already complained that they have no more guests. There's already a huge effect, she said, adding the quays and jetties were less crowded than before.

Some couples who scheduled their weddings on the island up to a year or two in advance had cancelled their reservations even before the ban was announced.

With the tour agents also besieged with client calls on whether to pursue their planned trips.

With more than 500 hotels, Boracay employs 17,000 people, apart from 11,000 construction workers working on new projects.

Businesses in Boracay have started laying off workers less than three weeks before the scheduled 6-month closure of the resort island to tourism and as government agencies prepared contingency plans.

A hotel chain has laid off 280 mostly newly hired workers in anticipation of no guests, especially foreign tourists, during the closure.

We will decide later on our remaining employees, said the hotel official who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to issue a statement.

Business groups expect more establishments, especially the small and family-operated ones, to trim the number of workers and cut overhead costs.

A small family-operated inn in Sitio Angol in Barangay Manoc-Manoc will be sending home all its five staff members to their hometowns in Aklan while the closure is ongoing.

We cannot pay for their salaries but we will continue remitting contributions for the Social Salary System, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and PagIbig Fund, the hotel manager said.

He said they still had to continue paying for electricity and water services even without guests.

An owner of a delicatessen said they had to let go of three casual workers because of the closure. They still have to discuss plans for their remaining staff.

Some business operators will absorb their hotel or resort staff in other businesses so they can continue working. Others said they would continue supporting their workers despite the closure.

We have decided to keep them even if we are closed because they have been with us for many years and they have helped us build and developed our resort, said Ruth Tirol-Jarantilla, owner of the Sea Wind Boracay resort.

The closure of the island will affect the more than 73,500 island residents, including 17,328 registered employees and 9,365 unregistered workers.

Agencies under the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council in Western Visayas will still finalize their contingency plans and measures this week.

Johnson Cañete, Western Visayas director of the Department of Labor and Employment, earlier said the agency was preparing to assist the more than 17,000 registered workers who will be dislocated.

The proposed compensation package included a P500 insurance and compensation amounting to the regional minimum wage of P323.50 per day from 30 to 90 days.

Workers on the island were earning more than the minimum wage.

A souvenir vendor and masseuse can earn from P700 to P900 per day during the peak months for tourists.

Business groups have lamented the lack of clear plans and guidelines on how government will address the dislocation of thousands of workers and the losses of business operators especially those with bank loans and high overhead costs.

Some business operators are initiating a community support program for residents worst hit by the closure.

Our priorities are our sick relatives whose healthcare and maintenance (medicines) are dependent on Boracay tourism income and our students whose studies may be interrupted by the sudden closure, said Vicky Aguirre-Salem.

She said they were asking schools in Iloilo and the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan to allow students from families dependent on Boracay’s tourism industry to pay in installments.

They are also soliciting school supplies and uniforms to defray expenses of these families.


Tourism Observer

PHILIPPINES: Dozens Dead After Gunman Torches Casino, Kills Himself

Thirty-six bodies were found inside a casino in the Philippine capital on Friday after a masked man burst in with an automatic rifle and set fire to the building, triggering fears of a terrorist attack, police said.

Dozens of other people were injured in a stampede as people rushed to leave Resorts World Manila, which is across a road from the Philippines' main international airport, after the man fired what police chief Ronald dela Rosa said was an M4 assault rifle and set alight parts of a gaming room about midnight.

The body of the gunman was found in a hotel room inside the complex about five hours later, Dela Rosa said.

He said the gunman only fired at a television screen and did not take aim at any people, but police later reported finding 36 bodies in the casino who apparently died from smoke inhalation.

Thirty-six deaths, this is due to suffocation, Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said.

The gunman initially disappeared into the chaos of smoke and running people, leading to a manhunt throughout the complex that ended just after dawn when he was found dead in a hotel room, according to Dela Rosa.

He lay down on the bed, covered himself with a thick blanket, apparently poured petrol on the blanket and burned himself, Dela Rosa said.

Before the gunmen had been killed and police had confirmed any motive, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility and US President Donald Trump also branded it a "terrorist attack" .

But Dela Rosa insisted it was most likely a robbery gone wrong, saying the man did not shoot at anyone and appeared to be intent just on stealing gambling chips.

For now, we can say that this is not an act of terror. There is no element of violence, threat or intimidation that leads to terrorism, Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa said the man, who appeared to be acting alone, walked into one of the gambling rooms and fired the rifle at a large television screen, then poured gasoline onto a gambling table and set it alight.

He said the man then fired again at a stock room containing gambling chips and filled a backpack with chips worth 113 million pesos ($2.3 million).

The man left the room and went upstairs to the hotel section, but left the backpack, according to Dela Rosa.

Albayalde also insisted it was not a terrorist attack.

It is a simple robbery and most likely it was done by a demented person, Albayalde said outside the casino.

Dela Rosa said 18 of 54 injured people were in hospital. He said the others sustained only minor injuries.

People inside the casino recounted feelings of terror when the shooting occurred.

I was about to return to the second floor from my break when I saw people running. Some hotel guests said someone yelled 'ISIS'," Maricel Navaro, an employee of Resorts World, said.

ISIS is another acronym for the Islamic State group.

When we smelled smoke, we decided to go for the exit in the carpark. That's where we got out. Before we exited, we heard two gunshots and there was thick smoke on the ground floor, Navaro said.

Outside the complex, relatives of people caught inside waited on Friday morning to hear news of their loved ones.

Our daughter called us past midnight saying she was in the VIP section of the casino and there was smoke and they were suffocating, Gil Yongco, 42, said.

We are very worried about her. We haven't heard from her.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law last week across the southern region of Mindanao to crush what he said was a rising threat of IS there.

He made the move shortly after militants went on a rampage through the southern city of Marawi, which is about 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Manila.

Security forces are still battling the militants in Marawi, and the clashes there have left at least 171 people dead.

Duterte said last week he may need to declare martial law across the rest of the country if the terrorism threat spread.

PHILIPPINES: 10 Soldiers Killed In Marawi ‘friendly fire’

Military airstrikes aimed at Islamist militants in Marawi killed 11 of their own soldiers and injured seven others, Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said in a news conference on Thursday.

In an earlier news conference, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana put the number of fatalities at 10. But Padilla updated the figure.

A group of our military armed men were hit by our own airstrikes, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters in Manila, adding the incident happened on Wednesday.

Security forces have been battling militants flying the black flags of the Islamic State (IS) group in Marawi, a major Muslim city in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, since Tuesday last week.

The military has bombed and fired rockets from attack helicopters throughout the conflict with the militants, who have been hiding in residential areas holding hostages.

About 2,000 civilians are also trapped in the militant-held areas, according to the local government.

Military chiefs have repeatedly said the assaults involved “precision” and “surgical” airstrikes, and assured they were not harming any of the trapped civilians or hostages.

It’s sad but sometimes it happens in the fog of war. The coordination was not properly done, Lorenzana said Thursday as he announced the deaths.

He said later via text message that seven soldiers had also been wounded.

The clashes erupted when security forces raided a house to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant regarded as IS’s leader in the Philippines. He is on the US government’s list of most-wanted terrorists.

Authorities said they were taken by surprise when dozens of gunmen emerged to protect Hapilon and then went on a rampage through Marawi, which has a population of 200,000.

Most of the residents had fled the city but the International Committee of the Red Cross has repeatedly expressed deep concern for those who remained trapped, and called for a humanitarian ceasefire

I think it’s horrific for the civilian people who are in there and we really hope that both sides can agree that the civilians should be given the opportunity to come out, the deputy head of the ICRC’s Philippine delegation, Martin Thalmann, said in Marawi on Wednesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the entire southern region of Mindanao in response to the crisis, which he described as the start of a major campaign by IS to establish a foothold in the Philippines.

Eighty-nine militants have been killed in the fighting, and the gunmen have murdered 19 civilians, the military said on Wednesday.

The announcement of the friendly fire deaths brings the number of security forces killed to 31, and the combined death toll to 139.

PHILIPPINES: The Armed Forces Of The Philippines Continues Striking Terrorists In Marawi City, Lanao del Sur

Cops on Sunday, May 28, entered ground zero of military clashes with local terrorist groups to finally retrieve dead bodies on the streets.

The military earlier said the terrorists have killed 19 civilians in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.

Among the bodies recovered were those of 3 women and a child, said Al Sayyeed Alonto, who joined the retrieval operations in Barangay Basak Malutlut.

It signals the beginning of attempts by Marawi City to get a semblance of normalcy even as clashes continue for the 6th straight day. The fighting erupted last Tuesday, May 23, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law in the entire Mindanao.

There is division of labor, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The AFP continues operations against the terrorists, police-assisted local government units (LGUs) lead the retrieval of bodies, volunteers rescue families trapped in combat zones, and so on.

Right now, the LGUs are the ones collecting dead bodies of civilians. Sa amin naka-focus pa rin kami sa,We're still focusing on military operations pertaining to clearing and security operations,said Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera, military spokesman on the Marawi crisis.

The retrieval operations come after 8 bodies were found in a ditch near a security checkpoint on Sunday morning. It is unclear if these 8 were included in the military's count of civilian deaths.

Trapped civilians

Herrera also said over 200 civilians trapped inside the combat zone have been "rescued" from their homes.

But 2,000 others remain trapped in areas controlled by the terrorists, according to Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the Lanao del Sur crisis management committee.

They have been sending us text messages, calling our hotline, requesting us to send rescue teams but we cannot simply go to areas which are inaccessible to us, Adiong said.

They want to leave. They are afraid for their safety. Some are running out of food to eat. They fear they will be hit by bullets, by air strikes, he said.

Surgical air strikes

Air strikes had resumed on Sunday afternoon. The attack choppers could be seen from the provincial capitol.

Surgical air strikes resume in Marawi City Sunday afternoon.

Herrera said they are surgical attacks targeting fortifications of the local terrorist groups.

We are still using surgical air strikes dahil mayroon pa rin silang mga,because they still have fortifications. They are occupying buildings. They are using sniper rifles to inflict casualty on government forces, he said.

The military assures public that the air strikes are surgical, targetting fortifications of Maute.

Manila Asks Beijing To Legitimise Status Of 200,000 Domestic Workers

The Philippines’ new labour and employment minister will visit China next month to push for allowing Filipinos to work legally as domestic workers on the mainland, revealing that up to 200,000 of them are currently working there illegally.

Speaking in Hong Kong on Sunday, Silvestre Bello described the number of Filipino domestic helpers working illegally across the border as “alarming”, as he revealed plans to ask Beijing to legalise their status.

“I intend to pursue my plan to visit China, maybe Beijing, and talk to the authorities on how to legitimise the stay of our overseas workers and at the same time look at the possibilities of bringing in more workers under legitimate circumstances,” the minister said.

“After my visit to Oslo, I may join our president Rodrigo Duterte who earlier intimated to me his intention to visit China,” he added. “So it could be the end of October, unless he decides to go first to Saudi Arabia.”

While the Hong Kong government has for many years fully opened the door to maids from the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries, the mainland has a different policy.

It was only in July last year that Shanghai started to allow foreign residents to legally hire domestic helpers from overseas – Chinese citizens are not permitted to employ them. Only five maids had reportedly been approved to work in Shanghai by the end of last year.

And it is only since last month that expatriates, including people from Hong Kong and Taiwan, have been allowed to hire foreign domestic workers in Guangdong.

With the mainland’s affluent middle class and wealthy citizens seeking hired help at home, a worker at a Shanghai agency told the Post he had heard of cases of better-off mainlanders employing maids from overseas.

“Filipino maids are popular with some better-off mainland families because they want to give their children an English-speaking environment at home,” he said. “Compared to local mainland babysitters, they are more hard-working and more stable. They won’t need to take holidays during Lunar New Year.”

It costs about 8,000 to 10,000 yuan a month to hire a foreign maid, he said.

Minister Bello said he believed the Chinese government was resistant to opening up the market because that would mean fewer job opportunities for mainlanders who work as domestic helpers. But he countered that the market in the mainland was big enough to accommodate the Filipino maids already working there.

He suspected that many of them were misled by employment agencies into thinking they could work as English teachers on the mainland.

Teresa Liu Tsui-lan, managing director of Technic Employment Service Centre, said Filipinos were able to work on the mainland through employment agencies engaging in the illegal business, foreign firms allowed to hire foreigners as staff, and some Hong Kong families who hire maids in the city and pass them on to relatives across the border.

“The agencies make more than HK$10,000 placing a maid for a mainland client,” Liu said.

Meanwhile, Bello quoted his Hong Kong counterpart Matthew Cheung Kin-chung as telling him after a Friday meeting that the city would consider sparing maids from high-rise window-cleaning duties after several plunged to their deaths this year.

But Cheung said on Sunday: “A ban is not easy to implement, and also you have to remember, to look at the practical side of the issue. The more immediate thing to do is to educate, promote and remind everybody concerned, the employers and employees that you have to be careful.”

PHILIPINES: Duterte Names Health, Tourism, Trade Secretaries

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Monday evening named three addition to his Cabinet—secretaries for the Departments of Health, Tourism, and Trade and Industry.

In a video released to the media, incoming deputy presidential spokesperson Ernie Abella said Duterte has chosen assistant health secretary Dr. Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial as DOH chief.

Duterte also picked Wanda Corazon Teo, owner of Mt. Apo Travel and Tours, as tourism secretary.

Teo, sister of journalist Ramon Tulfo, is also the president of National Association & Independent Travel Agencies (NAITAS) Phil. Inc., which claims to be the “biggest tourism organization in the country.”

Businessman Ramon Lopez, executive director of Go Negosyo, was also named trade and industry secretary.

PHILIPPINES: ‘Asia’s Trump’ Rodrigo Duterte Leads In Philippines Election.

A BRUISING presidential campaign is drawing to a close in the Philippines with a last-minute attempt by the president to unify candidates against a front-running mayor perceived as a threat to democracy virtually collapsing.

After crisscrossing the archipelago nation for three months, five presidential candidates led by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte will converge in the vote-rich capital Saturday for their final rallies ahead of Monday’s vote. Thousands of police have been deployed to maintain order.

On the eve of the end of campaigning, President Benigno Aquino III made a desperate call on candidates to agree to an alliance to defeat the brash Duterte, who has been likened to U.S. Republican front-runner Donald Trump for his controversial remarks but has topped pre-poll surveys on a pledge to wipe out criminals and corruption.

Duterte’s 30-point lead in surveys can be overcome if his trailing rivals — mainly former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe — join hands, Aquino said, implying that some of them should back out and support a single aspirant.

Under the Philippine electoral system, a candidate who gets the most votes is proclaimed the winner, even if no one gets a majority.

Poe, however, refused an invitation by Roxas, who has been backed by Aquino, to meet and discuss an arrangement where she would be forced to back out. Vice President Jejomar Binay also stated he would not step aside. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has trailed far behind in surveys, has also vowed never to surrender.

Duterte’s camp said calls for an alliance against him “reeks of stench of defeat.”

“It’s an admission that a victory by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has virtually become inevitable,” said the mayor’s national campaign manager Leoncio Evasco Jr.

A longtime mayor of southern Davao city, the 71-year-old Duterte courted controversy with his profanity-laden speeches, vulgar jokes and devil-may-care irreverence but has successfully tapped into public insecurities with a bold promise to wipe out crime and corruption in three to six months if he is elected.

Aquino, business executives and church leaders felt that he crossed the line when he joked about wanting to have raped first an Australian missionary, who was gang raped and brutally killed by inmates in a 1989 jail riot.

When the Australian and U.S. ambassadors sniped at his joke, Duterte asked them to shut up and expressed openness at the possibility of severing ties with major Western allies if he wins the presidency.

He also has threatened to close Congress if lawmakers try to impeach him if he wins next week and has said he would allow Marxist guerrillas to play a political role in his government.

A senator has threatened to immediately try to impeach Duterte if he becomes president.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has filed a corruption complaint alleging the mayor hired non-existent employees and kept a huge amount in a joint bank account with his daughter that he did not declare publicly in 2014, as required by law. Duterte has denied any wrongdoing.