MANILA – The country’s special envoy to China Ramon Tulfo has no plan to apologize for his statement regarding employers’ preference for Chinese workers over Filipinos.
In a social media post yesterday, Tulfo insisted he won’t apologize or retract his statement calling Filipino workers “lazy and slowpoke” and “always smoke and keep talking” during work hours.
“To the Filipino construction workers, why should I apologize to you for telling the truth that you’re basically lazy and slowpoke? Does the truth hurt?” Tulfo posted on Twitter.
Tulfo drew the ire of labor groups following a television interview last week where he said Chinese workers were more hard-working than their Filipino counterparts.
“Alam mo bakit preferred ng mga developers ‘yung mga Chinese workers? Masipag. ‘Yung mga Pinoy workers, mawalang galang na, ‘pag pupunta sa job site saka lang doon magpe-prepare ng kanilang tools whereas ‘yung mga Chinese preparado na – tapos sigarilyo nang sigarilyo, salita nang salita,” Tulfo said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte said in a speech recently he could not simply deport Chinese nationals working in the Philippines because he is afraid that the Filipinos working in China might got laid off.
The Senate recently launched a probe into the rise of Chinese workers in the Philippines to check whether the foreigners are taking over jobs that could have been for Filipinos.
Last year, the Bureau of Immigration Intelligence Division arrested a total of 553 foreign nationals, mostly illegal workers.
Recently, more than 200 foreign nationals were arrested in a raid of a network technology company in Makati City./PN
