Senators prodded the Department of Public Work and Highways (DPWH) Wednesday to prioritize the hiring of Filipino workers in the government's infrastructure projects.

During the Senate Committee on Finance  hearing on the P667.3-billion proposed 2021 budget of the DPWH, senators brought up the reported preferential treatment given to foreign workers, mostly Chinese, in the construction of key infrastructure projects of the Duterte administration.

"Given the huge unemployment rate we are now facing because of COVID(-19), is  the employment of foreign worker a condition for the approval of the ODA (Official Development Assistance)?" Sen. Francis Pangilinan asked.

Secretary Mark Villar denied this but explained that "a lot of these new, foreign projects come with new technologies and require some specialization."

"And therefore, sometimes, in some of our projects, (we see) some level of Chinese workers, we see some level of foreign workers," Villar said.

Villar said the "special" technologies and equipment used in the infrastructure project would require "special skills" and the expertise of foreigners, which he believed was part of the skills transfer to their Filipino counterparts.

"It will ultimately prove beneficial to us," he continued, even as he maintained that an "overwhelming majority" of their workers are Filipinos.

In the hearing, however, DPWH Undersecretary Emil Sadain admitted that Chinese workers accounted for 30 to 45 percent of their workforce for at least two bridge construction projects funded by China.

Sadain said that for the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge in Makati, "it's actually a ratio of 69 percent of Filipino and 31 percent for the Chinese." 

He compared it against the Chinese workers engaged for the construction of the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge in Manila, where "there are 55 percent Filipino (workers) and 45 percent Chinese."

Sen. Nancy Binay, sharing the same concern, asked Villar if the Philippines had a similar experience for other foreign-assisted projects aside from those funded by China.

"Hindi naman siguro aabot ng 40 percent, like the two Chinese projects?" Binay raised. "Parang nakakataka lang na ang laki ng percentage ng Chinese workers, and I think this is not usual when it comes foreign-funded projects."

Sen. Joel Villanueva, who has questioned the influx of illegal Chinese workers in the country, pointed out that no less than the Supreme Court mandates the preference to Filipino workers over other nationalities. He reiterated the need for a mechanism to "ensure and monitor that these foreign workers are technically unique."