Duterte to visit China, to seek opportunity for OFWs

February 13, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he will attend a conference in China and he will take the opportunity to formally ask Beijing to accept Filipino workers.

Duterte made the statement when he welcomed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport about 150 overseas Filipino workers who availed of the amnesty program and repatriated from Kuwait.

"I will tell what happened (to the Filipinos in Kuwait). I will go -- I don't know how. I don't want when it's cold. But I will go because we have a conference there. So I will tell (China), 'don't hire others, our Filipino OFWs, they are kind," he said in a speech.

Duterte did not say when he will visit China, but if it pushes through, this will be his third since he assumed office in June 2016.

Duterte has banned the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait after the deaths of some Filipinos who were allegedly abused and maltreated in the Gulf state.

The president noted China is hiring foreign teachers because many Chinese want to study English.

He also said that like Japan, China has an "aging" population.

"Like in Japan, the ordinary women do not want to give birth anymore," he said, sharing what he read in a magazine that in some villages in Japan, there were no people as they migrated to urban centers.

He said only baby dolls or life-sized dolls were left in those rural areas. "There are no more people. They just put dolls. I read that magazine," he said.

Duterte urged businessmen in the Philippines to explore the possibility of establishing nursing homes where Filipinos would be the ones to take care of them here.

Currently, there are existing care giving or nursing homes for elderly expatriates in the country. Celerina Monte/DMS