There’s a Korean invasion taking place in the Philippines. In case you haven’t noticed, Koreans are all over Metro Manila, Baguio, Angeles City, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao City operating honky tonks, nightclubs, restaurants and opening up schools and academies teaching English, their favorite enterprise, displacing Filipinos in retail trade and small enterprises.
Bureau of Immigration and Deportation records show that for the past three or four years, a record number of some 300,000 Koreans came to the Philippines, mostly as tourists.
The same records show that less than 30,000 have been documented or authorized to work or set up businesses. Santa Banana, where are the rest of the undocumented Koreans?
There are actually two kinds of Koreans coming to the Philippines. There are the well-mannered and educated Koreans. But there, too, are those who come from the “bundoks” of South Korea. They are uncouth, ill mannered and abrasive, throwing their weight around just because they seem to be awash with money. You see them in hotel lobbies and even restaurants with their feet up as they do back home, and in shopping malls being welcomed by salesgirls with dollar signs in their eyes.
This latter type I saw in Cebu when I was there last weekend. In the pricey Mactan Shangrila Resort where we stayed, they lounged at the lobby with their feet up as if they owned the place.
The problem is that Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and his boys are treating Koreans with kid gloves for fear that the Korean government will retaliate against some 100,000 Filipinos working in South Korea.
But, my gulay, shall we allow them to ride roughshod on us Filipinos, even violating our immigration and other laws just because of the mighty Korean won? If our migrants violate laws in Korea, doesn’t the Republic of South Korea drop the axe on them, too?
